THE 


ORIGIN    OF    LANGUAGES, 


AND    THE 


ANTIQUITY  OF  SPEAKING  MAN. 


AN   ADDRESS 

befoke  the   section  of  anthropology  of  the  american 
association  for  the  advancement  of  science, 

At  Buffalo,  August,  1886. 


By    HORATIO    HALE, 

vice-president. 


[From  tlie  Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science,  Vol.  XXXV.] 


CAMBRIDGE : 

JOHN    WILSON    AND    SON. 

tanfbctsfts  |3tes9. 

1886. 


ADDEESS 

BY 

HOKATIO    HALE, 

VICE-PKESIt»ENT,    SECTION    H. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  LANGUAGES,   AND   TEE  ANTIQUITY  OF 
SPEAKING  MAN. 


In  the  studj-  of  every  science  there  arise  from  time  to  time 
difricult  questions  or  problems,  which  seem  to  bar  the  wa}-  of  tlie 
student  in  one  direction  or  another.  It  becomes  apparent  that  on 
the  proper  sohition  of  these  problems  the  progress  of  the  science 
mainly  depends ;  and  the  minds  of  all  inquirers  are  bent  earnestly' 
on  the  discovery  of  tliis  solution.  Such  in  biolog}'  are  the  questions 
of  the  origin  of  life  and  the  genesis  of  species.  Anthropology,  and 
its  auxiliary  or  component  sciences  of  comparative  philologj',  ethnol- 
ogy, and  archaeology,  have  their  share  of  these  problems.  Among 
them  two  of  the  most  important  are  undoubtedly,  in  philology,  the 
question  of  the  origin  of  linguistic  stocks,  and  in  archaeology,  the 
question  of  the  epoch  at  which  man  acquired  the  faculty  of  speech. 
In  the  language  of  modern  diplomacy,  these  would  be  st3led 
"  burning  questions,"  which  must  be  settled  before  any  hopeful 
progress  can  be  made  in  other  discussions.  A  brief  consideration 
of  these  questions,  in  the  light  cast  upon  them  by  the  most  recent 
discoveries,  maj'  therefore  be  deemed  to  form  an  appropriate 
introduction  to  the  work  of  our  Section.  Brief!}'  defined,  then,  our 
inquiry  on  this  occasion  will  have  for  its  subjects,  or  rather  its 
subject,  —  for  the  two  questions  are  closely  coiuiected,  and  form  in 
reality  but  one  problem,  —  the  origin  of  languages  and  the  antiquity 
of  speaking  man. 

Tiie  question  of  the  origin  of  languages  must  be  distinguished 
from  the  different  and  larger  question  of  the  origin  of  language, 


4  SECTION   H. 

which  belongs  rather  to  anthropology  proper  than  to  the  science 
of  linguistics,  and  will  come  under  consideration  in  the  later  part 
of  our  iniiuir}-.  Nor  yet  does  our  question  concern  the  rise  and 
development  of  tlie  dilierent  tongues  belonging  to  one  linguistic 
stocli  or  family,  like  the  sixty  languages  of  the  Aryan  or  Jndo- 
European  stock,  tlic  twenty  languages  of  the  Hamito-Semitic  family, 
the  one  hundred  and  sixty-eiglit  languages  enumerated  by  ]Mr. 
R.  N.  Cust  as  comi)osing  the  great  Bantu  or  South  African  iamily, 
and  the  thirty-five  languages  of  the  wide-spread  Algonkin  stock. 
Such  idioms,  however  much  thej'  may  ditfer,  arc  in  their  nature 
only  dialects.  The  manner  in  which  these  idioms  originate  is  per- 
fectly well  understood.  When  two  communities,  in  the  barbarous 
or  semi-barbarous  stage,  whose  members  spoke  originally  the  same 
language,  have  been  separated  for  a  certain  length  of  time,  a  dill'cr- 
cnce  of  dialect,  due  to  differences  of  climate,  culture,  customs,  and 
otlier  circumstances,  grows  up  between  them.  They  can  still  un- 
derstand each  other's  speech,  but  there  are  variances  in  pronuncia- 
tion and  in  the  use  of  certain  words,  by  which  they  can  readil}'  be 
distinguished.  In  the  progress  of  time  these  differences  increase. 
Grammatical  peculiarities  are  developed.  Permutations  of  ele- 
mentary sounds,  like  those  which  are  manifested  in  the  famous 
"Grimm's  law,"  alter  whole  classes  of  words  be3-ond  the  recogni- 
tion of  a  hearer  familiar  only  with  the  original  speech.  And,  finall}', 
two  distinct  languages  are  found  to  have  come  into  being,  so  diverse 
in  vocabularj-  and  grammar  that  each  must  be  learned  as  a  foreign 
speeeh  by  the  speakers  of  the  other  tongue.  Yet,  however  wide 
may  be  the  diversity,  a  careful  analysis  and  comparison  will  always 
disclose  the  kinship,  and  indicate  the  common  origin  of  the  two 
languages. 

But  while  the  manner  in  which  different  languages  of  the  same 
family  arise  is  thus  evident  enough,  not  merely  in  theory,  but  in  the 
numerous  instances  which  have  occurred  within  historic  times,  we 
Lave  neither  instance  nor  satisfactory  theory  to  explain  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  families  themselves.  "When,  for  example,  we 
have  traced  back  the  Ar3-an  (or  Indo-European)  languages  and  the 
Semitic  languages  to  their  separate  mother-tongues,  wliich  we  are 
able  to  frame  out  ot  the  scattered  dialects,  we  find  between  these 
two  mother-tongues  a  great  gulf,  which  no  explanation  thus  far 
proposed  has  sufficed  to  bridge  over.  How  strongly  the  sense  of 
this  difficulty  has  been  felt  by  the  highest  minds  engaged  in  philo- 


ADDKEaS    BY    HORATIO    HALE.  0 

logical  study  will  be  evident  from  two  striking  examples.  Sixty 
years  ago,  Baron  William  von  HmnlioUlt,  who  held  in  this  branch  of 
study  the  same  position  wliieli  was  held  by  liis  illustrious  brother  in 
the  natural  sciences,  found  it — as  Dr.  IJrinton  states  in  the  excellent 
Introduction  to  his  translation  of  Iluniboklt's  •*  Philosophic  CJram- 
uiar  of  the  American  Languages"  —  "so  contrary  to  the  results  of 
his  prolonged  and  profound  study  of  languages  to  believe,  for  in- 
stance, that  a  tongue  like  the  Sanscrit  could  ever  be  developed  from 
one  like  the  Chinese,  that  he  frankly  said  that  he  would  rather  accept 
at  once  the  doctrine  of  those  who  attribute  the  dilferent  idioms  of 
men  to  an  immediate  revelation  from  God."  Fifty  years  later,  the 
distinguished  representative  of  linguistic  science  in  France,  Pro- 
fessor Abel  Ilovelacque,  pronounced  in  his  admirable  comi)endium, 
"La  Linguistique "  (ISTO),  what  may  be  deemed  the  "last  word" 
of  science  on  this  subject.  "  >«ot  only,"  he  allirms,  "is  there  no 
grammatical  identity  between  the  system  of  the  Semitic  languages 
and  that  of  the  Indo-European  tongues,  but  these  two  comprehend 
inflection  in  a  manner  entirely  dilfcreiit.  Their  roots  are  totally 
distinct ;  their  formative  elements  are  essentiall}-  dilfcrent ;  and 
there  is  no  relation  between  the  two  modes  in  which  these  elements 
perform  their  functions.  The  ab3'ss  between  the  two  systems  is 
not  merely  profound,  —  it  is  impassable." 

Such  then  is  the  difliculty  and  the  gravity  of  this  question  of  the 
origin  of  languages,  —  a  problem  as  serious  and  as  fundamentally 
important  for  philological  science  as  the  question  of  the  origin  of 
species  is  deemed  in  biolog}' ;  and,  as  has  been  alread}'  renuirkcd, 
on  the  correct  solution  of  this  problem  the  progress  and  the  future, 
not  merely  of  philology,  but  of  the  whole  "  Science  of  Man,"  may 
be  said  to  depend.  For  not  until  it  is  finally  settled  will  the  minds 
of  the  students  of  this  science  be  in  accord  on  the  all-important  ques- 
tion whether  tlio  human  race  belongs  to  many  species  or  to  only  one. 

Attempts  to  solve  the  problem  have  not  been  lacking.  Several 
solutions  have,  indeed,  been  proposed,  but  no  one  of  them  has 
met  with  general  acceptance.  One  of  these  suggested  explanations 
takes  into  account  the  element  of  time.  If  man  has  existed  for 
tiousands  of  centuries,  his  speech  might,  it  is  supposed,  have 
undergone  in  that  vast  period  all  the  alterations  required  to  produce 
these  various  linguistic  stocks.  But  the  conclusions  of  William  von 
Humboldt  and  of  Professor  Ilovelacque,  already  cited,  —  conclu- 
sions which  express  the  generally  received  views  of  the  best  philol- 


6  SECTION   n. 

ogists,  —  show  that  this  cxplauation  cannot  be  entertained.  If  the 
(levclopnicnt  of  a  language  lilvo  tiie  Sanscrit  from  a  language  like 
the  CliiiK'se  is  inconceivable,  —  if  the  abyss  between  the  Semitic 
and  the  Indo-European  tongues  is  impassable, — then  it  is  clear 
that  the  mere  element  of  time  canncjt  help  us  in  this  dillieulty. 
Moreover,  we  know,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  the  passage  of  time 
has  not  the  effect  sui)i)oscd.  It  is  certain  that  the  distance  between 
a  Semitic  tongue  and  an  Aryan  tongue  in  our  day  —  as,  for 
example,  between  the  modern  Arabic  and  the  English  —  is  no 
greater  and  no  less  than  was  the  distance  between  the  Semitic  As- 
syrian and  the  Aryan  Sanscrit  a  thousand  3ears  before  the  Chris- 
tian era.  If  thirty  centuries  have  made  no  appreciable  change  in 
the  distinction  between  these  two  linguistic  families,  why  should  we 
suppose  that  three  thousand  centuries  would  produce  any  effect  in 
that  direction?  But  in  reality,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  progress 
of  our  inquiry,  it  is  most  probable  that  no  such  element  of  long- 
protracted  time  can  be  admitted  in  the  present  case. 

Another  theory  which  has  been  favored  b^-  some  esteemed  writers, 
and  among  others  b}'  Lyell  in  his  famous  work  on  the  "  Antiquit}' 
of  Man,"  supposes  that,  when  men  first  acquired  the  capacity  of 
speech,  their  use  of  language  was  probably  confined  to  a  few  mono- 
syllabic roots,  of  vague  and  fluctuating  import,  and  that,  when  those 
who  spoke  this  primitive  and  half-formed  tongue  were  scattered 
abroad,  their  imperfect  speech  developed  into  the  widel}'  different 
languages  which  became  the  mother-tongues  of  the  various  linguis- 
tic families.  This  ingenious  hypothesis,  however,  is  liable,  as  will 
be  seen,  to  all  the  objections  which  the  previousl}-  described  theory 
has  had  to  encounter,  and,  like  that,  does  not  stand  the  test  either 
of  reasoning  or  of  facts.  If  those  who  used  this  primitive  speech 
were  —  as  we  must  suppose  them  to  have  been  —  human  beings  like 
those  who  now  exist,  their  language  was  a  language  complete  in  all 
its  parts ;  for  no  tribe  of  men  has  been  found  in  any  part  of  the 
world  so  low  in  the  scale  of  humanit}'  as  not  to  have  a  complete 
and  thoroughly  organized  language.  This  language  may,  like  the 
Chinese  and  the  A'namese,  consist  wholly  or  mainly  of  roots ;  but 
it  is  none  the  less  complete,  and — what  is  more  important  to  the 
argument  —  none  the  less  permanent.  In  the  vast  Chinese  em- 
pire, after  an  existence  of  more  than  four  thousand  years,  one 
spoken  language  prevails,  with  dift'erences  of  dialect  not  so  great 
us  the  differences  which  exist  between  the  Romanic  languages  of 


ADDIUCaS    BY   HORATIO    HALK.  7 

Europe.  If  it  be  suggestpd  that  this  pcrniancnco  may  be  due  to 
the  existence  of  one  government  and  of  a  written  iliaractor,  tiie 
same  cannot  be  afHnned  of  the  nnm}'  nionos3llabic  hingiiagcs  be- 
longing to  the  great  linguistic  families  of  Trausgaugetic  India,  — 
the  Tibeto-lJurnian  family,  tlie  Tai  family,  and  liie  Mon-Anam 
family, — where  sometimes,  as  is  shown  by  Mr.  Cust  in  his  valu- 
able work  on  the  "Modern  Languages  of  the  East  Indies,"  twenty 
different  languages  belonging  to  one  linguistic  stoeiv  are  spolven  by 
connnuiiities  living  under  a  dozen  different  governments,  and  in 
every  stage  of  culture.  Furthermore,  it  may  be  asked,  How  is  it 
possil)le  to  suppose  that  the  nineteen  distinct  linguistic  stocks 
which  have  been  found  to  exist  in  what  is  now  the  State  of  Cali- 
fornia can  have  originated  in  dialects  of  a  monosyllabic  language 
spoken  thousands  of  years  ago  on  anotlier  continent?  Where  did 
these  dialects  lose  all  traces  of  resemblance,  and  how  did  the  speak- 
ers of  them  come  to  be  living  side  by  side  in  this  narrow  area? 
This  theory,  it  will  be  seen,  raises  dilllculties  far  greater  than 
those  which  it  undertakes  to  explain. 

Finally,  the  latest  proposed  solution,  and  one  which  merits  spe- 
cial attention  for  its  scientific  interest  and  the  weight  of  authority 
in  its  favor,  is  the  theory  first  propounded,  I  believe,  by  the  dis- 
tinguished Viennese  etluH^logist,  Dr.  Frederick  Miiller,  and  adopted 
b}'  Dr.  Ernest  Ilaeckel,  by  Professor  Ilovelacque,  by  General  Faid- 
herbe,  and  other  eminent  authorities.  This  theory  supposes  that 
men,  or  rather  the  precursors  of  man,  were  at  first  incapable  of 
speech,  and  that  they  acquired  tliis  capacity  at  different  jilaces. 
This  opinion  is  so  important  tliat  it  should  be  stated  in  the  language 
of  one  of  its  chief  .advocates.  In  his  work,  "La  Linguistiipie," 
already  quoted,  Professor  Ilovelaccjue,  after  describing  the  im- 
passable gulf  which  separates  the  Semitic  and  the  Indo-European 
languages,  adds  that  tlie  case  of  these  languages  is  the  ease  of 
a  considerable  number  of  linguistic  vsystems ;  and  he  proceeds : 
"  The  consequence  of  this  fact  is  important.  If,  as  we  have  shown, 
the  faculty  of  articulate  speech  is  the  projjcr  and  the  sole  charac- 
teristic of  man,  and  if  the  different  linguistic  systems,  which  we 
know,  are  irreducil)le,  they  must  have  come  into  existence  sepa- 
rately, in  regions  entirely  distinct.  It  follows  tiiat  the  precursor  of 
man,  the  first  to  acquire  the  faculty  of  articulate  language,  has 
gained  this  faculty'  in  different  j)laces  at  the  same  time,  and  has 
thus  given  birth  to  many  human  races  originally  distinct." 


8  SECTION    H. 

Dr.  Frederick  Mlillcr,  whoso  noble  work,  "The  Outline  of  Linguis- 
tic Science  "  (  GrniHlriss  (kr  iSprac/i  ir !nnensch((ff) ,  is  for  stiulcnts  of 
our  time  wiiat  the  "  Mithridiitcb"  of  Addung  luid  V'atcr  was  to  those 
of  a  former  generation,  —  the  great  thesaurus  of  pliilologic  research 
and  analysis,  —  not  only  maintains  this  view,  hut  lays  down  specifi- 
cally the  divisions  of  race  into  which  the  speechless  descendants 
of  the  primitive  precursor  of  our  kind  —  the  homo  priinhjcnius 
(Xlalus  —  had  separated  before  the}'  acquired  the  faculty  of  langunge. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  the  weight  which  may  be  justly  given  to  the 
opinions  of  such  high  authorities,  it  may  bo  afllrmed  in  this  case, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  earlier  theories,  that  the  difliculties  raised  by 
the  hypothesis  are  immeasurably  greater  than  those  which  it  is 
designed  to  remove. 

The  number  of  totally  different  linguistic  stocks,  so  far  as  now 
known,  is  at  the  lowest  comi)utation  over  two  hundred  ;  and  of 
these  the  greater  portion  belong  to  the  western  continent.  The 
theory-  now  under  consideration  supposes  that  both  continents  were 
in  early  times  inhabited  throughout  by  beings  resembling  men,  but 
incapable  of  s|)eech.  It  is  evident  that  the  process  of  this  wide  dis- 
persion of  l)oiiigs  in  that  serai-brutal  condition  must  have  occupied 
a  vast  space  of  time.  We  are  reciuired  to  believe  that  suddeidy  and 
separately,  with  no  common  impulse  or  cause,  but  at  one  time,  all 
these  scatiored  tribes,  which  had  existed  for  countless  ages  without 
language,  fortuitously  acquired  the  facult}'  of  speech,  invented  each 
its  own  language,  and  began  to  converse.  Such  a  stupendous 
event  —  the  sinndtaneous  acquisition,  by  more  than  two  luuuli'cd 
distinct  communities  of  speechless  beings,  of  the  facult}'  which 
specially  distinguishes  man  from  the  brute — would  well  deserve 
to  be  styled  miracidous. 

To  come  down  to  specific  particulars,  —  many  years  ago,  in  mak- 
ing the  first  ethnographical  survey  of  Oregon,  I  found  that  there 
were  in  that  region  no  less  than  twelve  linguistic  stocks,  —  that 
is,  families  of  languages  as  distinct  from  one  another  in  words 
and  grammar  as  the  Semitic  family  is  from  the  Indo-J^uropean. 
The  able  linguists  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  INIessrs.  Gatschet 
and  Dorsey,  have  made  further  investigations  in  this  region,  and 
have  visited  portions  of  it  which  I  was  unable  to  reach.  Their  re- 
searches have  confirmed  m}'  classification,  and  have  added  two  or 
three  additional  stocks.  South  of  this  district,  Mr.  Stephen  Powers, 
in  his  excellent  Report  on  California,  published  by  the  same  Bureau, 


ADDUESS    nv    HORATIO    HALE.  9 

has  continued  Ibo  survey  in  tUat  direction,  and  has  found  sixteen 
additional  linguistic  stocks  (besides  three  of  the  Oregon  stocks) 
within  the  liuills  of  that  State.  Thus,  in  a  region  not  much  larger 
than  France,  we  find  at  least  thirty  distinct  families  of  languagt's 
existing  together.  We  are  expecteil  to  believe  that  tliirty  sepai'ale 
communities  of  speechless  precursors  of  men,  after  living  side  by 
side  in  this  inarticulate  condition  for  an  indelluite  period,  sudilenly 
and  sinuiltaneonsly  acquired  the  power  of  speech,  and  began  at 
once  to  talk  in  thirty  distinct  languages.  The  mere  statement  of 
this  grotesque  proposition  seems  sullicient  to  refute  it. 

AVhile  some  of  the  ablest  reasoners  have  thus  been  groping 
vaguely  and  blindly,  in  wrong  directions,  for  the  solution  of  this 
problem,  and  while  others,  like  Humboldt  und  Whitney,  hi'  /e  given 
it  up  in  despair,  the  simple  and  sufllcicnt  explanation  has  been 
lying  close  at  hand,  awaiting  oidy,  like  many  other  discoveries  in 
science,  the  observation  of  some  facts  of  common  occurrence  to 
bring  it  to  light.  In  the  present  case,  the  two  ol)servers  who  have 
made  the  conclusive  facts  known  to  us  have  both  been  Americans, 
and  both  of  them  writers  of  more  than  ordinary  intelligence ;  but 
both  were  entirely  unknown  in  this  branch  of  investigation,  and 
both,  moreover,  had  the  singular  ill-fortinie  of  pul^lisliing  their  ob- 
servations in  works  of  such  limited  circulation  that  tlieir  important 
contributions  to  science  have  hitherto  failed  to  attain  the  notice 
they  deserved.  Their  observations  were  made  at  about  the  same 
time,  nearly  twenty  jears  ago,  but  published  at  different  dates,  — 
the  first  in  18(58,  the  second  ten  ^-ears  later.  It  was  the  latter  i)ub- 
lication  which  first  attracted  my  attention,  soon  after  its  appearance, 
and  led  to  a  course  of  study  and  inquiry  resulting  in  the  facts  and 
conclusions  now  to  be  detailed. 

Before  setting  forth  the  facts,  it  will  be  well  to  state  at  once  the 
result  of  the  inquiry.  Briefly,  then,  the  plain  conclusion  to  which 
all  the  observations  point  with  irresistible  force  is,  that  the  origin 
of  linguistic  stocks  is  to  be  found  in  what  may  be  termed  the  lan- 
guage-making instinct  of  very  young  children.  P'rom  numerous 
cases,  of  which  the  history  has  been  traced,  it  appears  that,  when 
two  children  who  are  just  beginning  to  speak  are  left  much  to- 
gether, they  sometimes  invent  a  complete  language,  suflicient  for 
all  purposes  of  mutual  intercourse,  and  yet  totally  unintelligible  to 
their  parents  and  others  about  them.  It  is  evident  that,  in  an  ordi- 
nary household,  the  conditions  under  which  such  a  language  would 


10  SECTION    II. 

be  formed  are  most  likely  to  occur  in  the  case  of  twins.  One 
of  the  most  remurkiible  instances  is  thiit  of  wliicli  a  record  has 
been  preserved  in  oneof  tlie  publications  to  which  reference  has  been 
made.  Tliis  is  a  volume,  published  in  lH7f<,  by  iMi.ss  E.  II.  Watson, 
a  lady  of  Boston,  the  authoress  of  several  esteemed  works  on  histor- 
ical sul)Jects.  In  performing  the  pious  duty  of  giving  to  the  world 
an  essay  by  her  father,  the  late  tieorge  Watson,  on  "•  The  Structure 
of  Language,  and  the  Uniform  Notation  and  Classification  of  \'ow- 
cls  for  all  Languages,"  the  eilitress  has  prefixed  to  it  two  essays 
of  her  own,  on  ''The  Origin  of  Language,"  ami  on  "  Spelling  Re- 
form," which  show  evidence  of  much  reading  and  thought,  and  con- 
tain many  valuable  suggestions.  The  volume  bears  the  peculiar 
title,  apparently  adopted  by  JMr.  Watson,  of  "  The  I'niverse  of 
Language,"  ami  api)earcd  under  the  ausi)ices  of  the  now  defunct 
"Authors'  Publishing  .Company,"  by  whose  lapse  most  of  the 
edition  was  cast  back  upon  the  hands  of  the  e<iitress,  and  thus 
failed  to  obtain  the  attention  uud  credit  which  its  value  should 
have  insured. 

The  llrst  of  ^liss  Watson's  essays  in  this  volume  comprises,  in 
especial,  one  contribution  to  scientilic  knowledge,  —  her  account  of 
the  *'  children's  language,"  —  which  she  justly  tleemeil  to  be  of  great 
value,  and  which  is  perhaiis  even  more  im[)ortant  than  she  sup- 
posed. It  is  presented  by  her  as  bearing  upon  the  (luestion  of  the 
origin  of  human  speech.  While  it  has  undoubtedly  a  real  interest 
in  this  respect,  its  main  value  resides  in  the  light  which  it  easts  on 
the  origin  of  linguistic  stocks.  There  is  nothing  in  the  example 
which  t'lcaily  i)roves  that  the  children  in  question  woiihl  have 
spoken  at  all  if  they  had  not  heard  their  parents  and  others  about 
them  comnuiiiicating  b}'  oral  souiuls,  —  though  we  may,  on  good 
grounds  (as  will  be  shown),  believe  that  they  woukl  ha\e  done  so. 
What  the  case  really  establishes  is,  that  children  who  have  thus 
learned  to  speak  ma}'  invent  a  language  of  their  own,  dilferent  from 
all  that  they  hear  around  them,  and  yet  adecpiate  to  all  the  purposes 
of  speech. 

In  the  year  18G0  two  children,  twin  boys,  were  born  in  a  respect- 
able family  residing  in  a  suburb  of  IJoston.  The}'  were  in  part  of 
Clerman  descent,  their  mother's  father  having  come  from  Germany 
to  Aimrica  at  the  age  of  seventeen  ;  but  the  (lerman  language,  we 
are  told,  was  never  spoken  in  the  household.  The  chiklren  were  so 
closely  alike  that  their  grandmother,  who  often  came  to  sec  them. 


ADUHESS    BY    HORATIO    IIALK.  11 

coulil  only  distinguish  Ihoni  by  some  colored  string  or  ribbon  tied 
annind  the  arm.  As  ol'teii  happens  in  such  cases,  an  intense  aflee- 
tion  existed  between  tiiem,  and  tiiey  were  constantly  together. 
The  remainder  of  their  interesting  story  will  be  best  told  in  the 
words  of  the  writer,  to  whose  enlightened  zeal  for  science  we  arc 
indebted  for  our  knowledge  of  the  facts.     She  thus  relates  it :  — 

"  At  the  usual  age  these  twins  began  to  talk,  but,  strange  to  say, 
•xot  their  '  mother-tongue.*  The\-  had  a  language  of  their  own,  and 
no  i)ains  could  induce  them  to  si)cak  anything  else.  It  was  in  vain 
that  a  little  sister,  five  years  older  than  they,  tried  to  make  them 
speak  their  ^;rf;/j>e  htngxuuje,  —  as  it  would  have  been.  They  per- 
sistently refused  to  utter  a  syllable  of  English.  Not  even  the  usual 
fn-st  words, '  pa[)a,'  '  mamma,'  '  father,'  '  mother,'  it  is  said,  did  they 
ever  speak  ;  ami,  said  the  lady  who  gave  this  infoiination  to  the 
writer,  —  who  was  an  aunt  of  the  children,  and  whose  home  was 
with  them,  —  they  were  never  known  during  this  interval  to  call 
their  mother  by  that  name.  They  had  their  own  name  for  her,  but 
never  the  English.  In  fact,  though  thc\-  had  the  usual  alleclions, 
were  rejoiced  to  see  their  fatlier  at  his  returning  home  each  night, 
playing  with  him,  etc.,  they  would  seem  to  have  been  otherwise 
completely  takvii  up,  absorbed  with  each  otlier.  .  .  .  The  children 
had  not  yet  been  to  school ;  for,  not  being  able  to  speak  their  '  own 
English,'  it  seemed  impossible  to  send  them  from  home.  Tluy 
thus  passed  the  days,  playing  and  talking  together  in  their  own 
speech,  with  all  the  liveliness  and  voluliilit}'  of  common  children. 
Their  accent  was  Gti'UKOi,  —  as  it  seemed  to  the  family.  Tiiey 
had  regular  words,  a  few  of  wiiich  the  family  K'arned  sometimes  to 
distinguish ;  as  that,  for  exami)le,  for  carriage,  which,  on  hearing 
one  pass  in  the  street,  they  W'ould  exclaim  out,  and  run  to  tlic 
window." 

Tills  word  for  carriage,  we  are  told  in  another  place,  was  nl-si- 
i}()0-(i,  of  which,  it  is  added,  the  syllal)les  were  sometimes  so  repeated 
that  the}'  made  a  nmcli  longer  word.  This,  unfortunately,  is  the 
onl}'  word  of  the  language  which  Miss  Watson  was  able  to  ascer- 
tain ;  but  even  from  this  one  example  some  interesting  inferences 
may  be  drawn.  The  sp«'i'eh  was  plainly  not  monosyllaliic ;  and  the 
word  in  (juestion  is  neither  English  nor  (Jerman.  In  the  conclml- 
ing  syllables,  if  lengthened  b}'  repetition,  we  may  perhaps  discern 
an  attemfitto  imitate  the  rumbling  of  a  carriage.  ''  The  children,' 
we  are  told,  "  went  in  the  family  by  the  name  of  the  little  '  Dutch 


12  SECTION    11. 

bo3's ' ;  and  the  father,  at  first  inquiry  of  the  wfiter,  called  their 
speech  '  a  mixture  of  German  and  English.'  But  the  chiUIren  at 
that  time  had  never  hoard  any  German  spoken  ;  therefore  it  could 
not  have  been  the  former ;  and  if  some  English  words  were  picked 
ui)  —  as  would  be  but  probable  —  the}'  seem  to  have  been  so  trans- 
formed that  they  were  not  recognizable  as  such,  unless  rarely.  .  .  . 
Tlie  mother  relates  that,  although  she  could  not  understand  their 
language,  she  contrived,  by  attention,  to  discover  what  they  wished 
or  meant." 

If  the  quick  car  of  a  mother,  after  years  of  intercourse,  could 
not  discern  the  English  words,  it  is  clear  that  the}-  were  not  used 
in  a  form  which  would  have  proi)erly  entitled  them  to  that  name. 
The  important  information  is  added,  that,  "even  in  that  early 
stage,  the  language  was  complete  and  full ;  that  is,  it  was  all  that 
was  needed.  The  children  were  at  no  loss  to  exi)rcss  themselves 
in  their  plays,  their  '  chattcrings '  with  each  other,  as  our  inform- 
ant expressed  it,  all  day.  Indeed,  the  writer  would  gather  from 
the  description  given  that  they  were  more  than  usually  animated 
between  themselves." 

The  sequel  of  the  story,  as  graphically  told  by  the  authoress,  has 
an  interest,  as  showing  that  the  language  spoken  around  these 
children  was  to  them  really  a  foreign  speech.  "  It  finally  seeming 
hopeless  that  they  were  going  to  learn  their  '  own  tongue,'  as  we 
call  it,  it  was  concluded  to  send  them  to  school  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, they  being  now  six  or  seven  years  old.  For  a  week,  as  the 
lady  teacher  described  to  whom  they  were  sent,  they  were  perfectly 
mute ;  not  a  sound  could  be  heard  from  them,  but  they  sat  with 
their  eyes  intently  fixed  upon  the  children,  seeming  to  be  watching 
their  every  motion,  — and,  no  doubt,  listening  to  every  sound.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  they  were  induced  to  utter  some  words,  and 
gradually  and  naturally  they  began,  for  the  first  time,  to  learn  their 
'  native  English.'  With  this  accomplishment,  the  other  began, 
also  naturally,  to  fade  away,  until  the  memory,  with  the  use  of  it, 
passed  from  their  mind." 

We  cannot  but  share  in  the  regret  expressed  by  the  accomi)lished 
authoress  that  she  was  not  acquainted  with  these  facts  until  it  was 
too  late  to  preserve  a  record  of  the  language  itself,  which,  it  is 
evident,  would  have  been  of  great  scientific  interest.  Indeed,  but 
for  the  facts  now  to  be  related,  a  suspicion  might  naturally  remain, 
in  spite  of  all  that  is  said  of  the  total  strangeness  of  the  children's 


ADDRESS    BY    HORATIO    HALE.  13 

speech,  that  it  was,  after  all,  onh'  an  exaggerated  specimen  of 
ordinary  "  baby-talk,"  —  a  mere  babble  of  imi)erfcc't  English, 
mixed  with  some  mimicries  of  r.utural  sounds.  Most  fortuiiatcly, 
another  example  atl'ords  the  precise  evidence  required  to  dispel  all 
such  suspicion.  Though  in  the  case  now  to  be  described  the 
circumstances  were  somewhat  dific'rent,  and  the  language  was 
probabl}-  less  complete  than  in  the  instance  just  recorded,  yet  it 
happened,  by  good  fortune,  that  a  careful  and  scicutiiic  observer 
was  in  a  position  to  preserve  at  least  a  portion  of  it  for  oin*  infor- 
mation. "While  these  interesting  twins  were  chattoiing  their  pecu- 
liar language  in  Boston,  a  little  four-year-old  girl  and  her  jounger 
brother  in  Albany  were  perplexing  their  parents  by  a  similar 
vagary.  A  clear  and  satisfactory  account  of  this  phenomenon  was 
given  by  the  late  E.  R.  Ilun,  M.I).,  of  that  city,  in  an  article  pub- 
lished in  the  ^Monthly  Journal  of  Psychological  Medicine  (in  the 
volume  for  IHOS).  under  the  title  of  "Singular  Development  of 
Language  in  a  Child."  For  my  knowledge  of  tiiis  most  important 
evidence,  as  well  as  for  man}"  otiier  valnal)le  suggestions,  l  have  to 
thank  our  distinguished  associate,  Dr.  Brinton,  whose  attention  no 
essential  fact  relating  to  his  favorite  sciences  is  likely  to  escape. 

The  statements  with  which  Dr.  Ilnn  commences  his  account  are 
too  succinct  to  be  abridged.  "The  snbject  of  this  observation," 
he  writes,  "  is  a  girl  aged  four  and  a  half  years,  sprightly,  intelli- 
gent, and  in  good  health.  The  mother  observed,  when  she  was 
two  years  old,  that  she  was  backward  in  speaking,  and  only  used 
the  words  'papa'  and  'mamma.'  After  that  slie  began  to  use 
words  of  her  own  invention,  and  though  she  understood  readily 
what  was  said,  never  employed  the  words  used  bv  others.  Clrad- 
uall}"  she  enlarged  her  vocabulary  nntil  it  has  reached  the  extent 
described  below.  She  has  a  brother  eighteen  months  younger  than 
herself,  who  has  learned  her  language,  so  that  thej-  talk  freel}' 
together.  He,  however,  seems  to  have  adopted  it  only  because  he 
has  more  intercourse  with  her  than  with  others ;  and  in  some  in- 
stances he  will  use  a  proper  Avord  with  his  mother,  and  his  sister's 
word  with  her.  She,  however,  persists  in  using  only  her  own 
words,  though  her  parents,  who  are  uneas}-  about  her  peculiarity 
of  speech,  make  great  efforts  to  induce  her  to  use  proper  words. 
As  to  the  possibility  of  her  having  learned  these  words  from 
others,  it  is  proper  to  state  that  her  |)arents  are  pci'sons  of  cultiva- 
tion, who  use  only  the  English  language.     The  mother  has  learned 


14  SECTION    II. 

French,  but  never  uses  the  language  in  conversation.  The  domes- 
tics, as  well  as  the  nurses,  speali  English  without  aii}'  peculiarities, 
and  the  child  has  heard  even  less  than  usual  of  what  is  called 
baby-talk.  Some  of  the  words  and  phrases  have  a  resemblance  to 
tlic  French ;  but  it  is  certain  that  no  person  using  that  language 
has  frequented  the  house,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  child  has 
on  any  occasion  heard  it  spoken.  Tliere  seems  to  be  no  difliculty 
about  the  vocal  organs.  She  uses  her  language  readily  and  freel}-, 
and  when  she  is  with  her  brother  they  converse  with  great  rapidity 
and  fluency." 

Dr.  Ilun  then  gives  the  vocabulary,  which,  he  states,  was  such 
as  he  had  "  been  able  at  different  times  to  compile  from  the  child 
herself,  and  especially  from  the  report  of  her  mother."  From  this 
statement  we  may  infer  that  the  list  probably  did  not  include  the 
whole  number  of  words  in  this  child-language.  It  comprises,  in  fact, 
only  twenty-one  distinct  words,  thougli  nuiu}-  of  these  were  used  in 
a  great  variety  of  acceptations,  indicated  by  the  order  in  which 
they  were  ari'anged,  or  by  comi)ounding  them  in  various  ways.  As 
we  know,  however,  on  excellent  autiioritv,  that  the  conversation 
of  English  laborers  has  been  found  to  be  carried  on  with  no  more 
than  a  hundred  words,  we  may  believe  that  the  talk  of  the  children 
might  be  fluent  enough  with  a  much  more  limited  vocabulary.  "  I 
once  listened,"  —  writes  Archdeacon  Farrar,  in  his  work  on  '"Lan- 
guage and  Languages,"  —  *■*  for  a  long  time  together  to  the  conver- 
sation of  three  peasants  who  were  gathering  apples  among  the 
boughs  of  an  orchard,  and,  as  far  as  I  could  conje-jture,  the  whole 
number  of  words  they  used  did  not  exceed  a  hiuidred  ;  the  same 
word  was  made  to  serve  a  variety  of  purposes."  This,  it  will  be 
seen,  was  exactly  the  case  with  the  language  of  these  children. 

Three  or  four  of  the  words,  as  Dr.  Ilun  remarks,  bear  an  evident 
resemblance  to  the  French,  and  others  might,  by  a  slight  change, 
be  traced  to  that  language.  He  was  unable,  it  will  be  seen,  to 
say  positively  that  the  girl  had  never  heard  the  language  spoken  ; 
and  it  seems  not  unlikely  that,  if  not  among  the  domestics,  at 
least  among  the  persons  who  visited  them,  there  may  have  been 
one  who  amused  herself,  innocently  enough,  by  teaching  the  child 
a  few  words  of  that  tongue.  It  is,  indeed,  by  no  means  improba- 
ble that  the  peculiar  linguistic  instinct  may  thus  have  been  first 
aroused  in  the  mind  of  the  girl,  when  just  beginning  to  speak. 
Among  the  words  showing  this  resemblance  are  fi-u  (pronounced, 


ADDRESS    BY    HOKATIO    IIALK.  lii 

we  arc  expressly  told,  like  the  French  word),  used  to  signify  "  fire, 
light,  cigar,  sun";  too  (the  French  tout),  meaning  "all,  every- 
thing "  ;  and  ne  pa  (whether  i)ronounced  as  in  French,  or  other- 
wise, we  arc  not  told),  signifying  "not."  J'etee-petee,  the  name 
given  to  the  boy  bj-  his  sister,  is  apparently  the  French  ^)e^7, 
little  ;  and  ma,  I,  may  be  from  the  French  moi,  me.  If,  however, 
the  child  was  rcall}'  able  to  catch  and  remember  so  readily  these 
foreign  sounds  at  such  an  early  age,  and  to  interweave  then)  into  a 
speech  of  her  own,  it  would  merely  show  how  readily  and  strongl}- 
in  her  case  the  language-making  faculty  was  developed. 

Of  words  formed  by  imitation  of  sounds,  the  language  shows 
barely  a  trace.  The  mewing  of  the  cat  evidently  suggested  the 
word  ine((,  which  signified  both  cat  and  furs.  For  the  other  voca- 
bles which  make  up  this  speech,  no  origin  can  be  conjectured.  We 
can  merel}'  notice  that  in  some  of  the  words  the  liking  which 
children  and  some  races  of  men  have  for  the  repetition  of  sounds  is 
apparent.  Thus  we  have  tni(/no-9niffiio,  signifying  "  water,  wash, 
bath";  f/o-ffo,  "delicacies,  as  sugar,  cand}',  or  dessert";  and 
waid-ioaiar,  "  black,  darkness,  or  a  negro."  There  is.  as  will  bo 
seen  from  these  examples,  no  si)ecial  tendenc}'  to  the  monosyllabic 
form.  Gunnnvjar,  we  are  told,  signifies  "  all  the  substantial  of 
the  table,  such  as  bread,  meat,  vegetables,  etc."  ;  and  the  same 
word  is  used  to  designate  the  cook.  The  boy,  it  is  added,  docs 
not  use  this  word,  but  uses  giia-migna,  which  the  girl  considers  a 
mistake.  From  which  we  may  gather  that  even  at  that  tender  age 
the  form  of  their  language  had  become  with  them  an  object  of 
thought ;  and  we  ma}'  infer,  moreover,  that  the  language  was  not 
invented  solely  b}-  the  girl,  but  that  both  the  children  contril^utcd 
to  frame  it. 

Of  miscellaneous  words  may  be  mentioned  gar,  "  horse"  ;  cleer, 
"  money  of  any  kind  "  ;  hecr,  "  literature,  books,  or  school "  ;  ^wtr, 
"  ball"  ;  hau,  "  soldier,  music"  ;  odo,,  "  to  send  for,  to  go  out,  to 
take  away";  kch,  "to  soil";  jm-ma,  "to  go  to  sleep,  pillow, 
bed."  The  varietj-  of  acceptations  which  each  word  was  capable  of 
receiving  is  exemplified  in  many  ways.  Thus  feu  might  become 
an  adjective,  as  ne-jyafeu,  "  not  warm."  The  verb  odo  had  many 
meanings,  according  to  its  position  or  the  words  which  accom- 
panied it.  Ma  odo^  "I  (want  to)  go  out":  r/dr  odo,  '"send  for 
the  horse";  too  odo,  "all  gone."  Gadii  signified  (iod ;  and  we 
arc  told,  "  When  it  rains,  the  children  often  run  to  the  window, 


IG  SECTION   n. 

and  call  out,  Gafin  odo  migno-mi pno,  feu  odn,  wbioli  means,  '  Go<l 
take  away  the  rain,  and  send  the  sun ' ;  odo  bclbre  the  object 
meaning  '  to  take  away,'  and  after  the  object,  "to  send.'"  l<rom 
this  remark  and  example  we  learn,  not  merely  that  the  lai.^aiage 
had  —  as  all  real  languages  must  have  —  its  rules  of  construction, 
but  that  these  were  sometimes  dilferent  l'i"in  the  Kngllsh  rules. 
This  also  apijcars  in  the  form  >nta  ic(iia-w<n'<n',  "•  dark  furs  "  (lit- 
erally, '*  I'urs  dark  "),  where  the  adjective  follows  its  substantive. 

The  odd  and  unexpected  associations  which  in  all  languages 
govern  the  meaning  of  words  arc  ai)i)arcnt  in  this  brief  vocabu- 
lary. "We  can  gather  from  it  that  the  parents  were  Catholics,  and 
punctual  in  church  observances.  The  words  ^?(/^)a  and  niam))ui 
were  used  separately  in  their  ordinary  sense ;  but  when  linked 
together  in  the  compound  term  juipa-inatimm,  the}-  signified  (ac- 
cording to  the  connection,  wo  may  i)resume)  "  church,  prayer- 
book,  cross,  priest,  to  say  their  prayers."  liau  was  "soldier"; 
but,  we  are  told,  from  seeing  the  bishop  in  his  mitre  and  vest- 
ments, thinking  lie  was  a  soklier,  thej-  applied  the  word  bau  to  him. 
Gd)'  odo  properly*  signified  "send  for  the  horse";  but  as  the 
children  frequentl}'  saw  their  father,  when  a  carriage  was  wanted, 
write  an  order  and  send  it  to  the  stable,  they  came  to  use  the  same 
expression  {ffcir  odo)  for  pencil  and  paper. 

There  is  no  appearance  of  inflection,  properl}'  speaking,  in  the 
language ;  and  this  is  only  what  might  be  expected.  Very  young 
children  rarely  use  inflected  forms  in  ain'  language.  The  English 
child  of  tliree  or  four  years  says,  "  IMar^'  cup,"  for  "  IVIary's  cup"  ; 
and  "  Dog  bite  IIarr\' "  will  represent  every  tense  and  mood.  It  is 
by  no  means  improbable  that,  if  the  children  had  continued  to  use 
their  own  language  for  a  few  years  longer,  inflections  would  have 
been  developed  in  it,  as  we  see  that  peculiar  forms  of  construction 
and  novel  compounds  —  which  are  the  germs  of  inflection  —  had 
already-  made  their  appearance. 

These  two  recorded  instances  of  child-languages  have  led  to  fur- 
ther iiuiuiries,  which,  though  pursued  only  for  a  brief  period,  and  in 
a  limited  field,  have  shown  that  cases  of  this  sort  are  by  no  means 
uncommon.  An  esteemed  physician  of  my  acquaintance,  whose 
childhood  was  passed  in  the  city  of  Kingston,  Ontario,  has  informed 
me  of  a  case  within  his  own  knowledge  wiiich  bears  a  remarkable 
resemblance  to  that  of  the  Albany  children.  It  occurred  in  that 
city  nearl}'  thirty  years  ago,  when  my  informant  was  about  seven 


ADDRESS    BY    HORATIO   HALK.  17 

j'cars  old ;  but  his  recollection  of  it  is  perfectly  dislinot.  A  widower 
with  several  children,  one  of  whom  was  a  boy  between  four  and 
five  years  old,  married  a  widow  with  a  single  child,  —  a  girl,  some- 
what younger  than  the  bo}-.  Tlioy  lived  directly  opposite  the 
residence  of  m^-  friend's  parents,  airl  he  knew  the  children  inti- 
matel}'.  The  boy  was  unusually  bad  .,ard  in  his  speech,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  marriage  spoke  imperfectl}-.  lie  and  the  little  girl  soon 
became  inseparal)le  playmates,  and  formed  a  language  of  tiieir  own, 
which  was  unintelligible  to  the'r  parents  and  friends.  'J'hey  had 
names  of  their  own  invention  for  all  the  objects  about  thorn,  and 
must  have  had  a  corresponding  supply  of  verbs  and  other  parts 
of  speech,  as  their  talk  was  fluent  and  incessant.  My  informant, 
with  his  brother  and  the  other  children  who  lived  near  them,  often 
listened  to  this  chatter  with  great  amusemoiit.  and  came  at  last  to 
recognize  a  number  of  the  most  common  (  v^iressions.  The  only 
one  which  he  can  now  remember  was  tlie  word  for  cat,  which 
fastened  itself  in  his  mind  I)}'  its  oddity.  Tiie  little  philologists 
had  a  favorite  cat,  which  tliej*  often  held  aloft  for  the  admiration  of 
the  spectators  across  the  street,  shouting  to  them  its  extraordinary 
name  of  shindikiJc.  This  term,  like  the  solitary  word  preserved 
of  the  speech  of  the  Boston  children,  proves  at  least  that  the  lan- 
guage had  passed  beyond  the  infantile  or  Chinese  stage,  when  ever}' 
word  is  a  monosyllable,  usuall}*  ending  in  a  vowel.  The  mother  of 
the  little  girl  became  at  length  so  much  dis(juieted  by  the  persistency 
of  the  children  in  refusing  to  speak  English,  that  she  finally  re- 
sorted to  the  expedient  of  sei)aratiiig  them,  and  placed  the  daughter 
for  a  time  under  the  care  of  a  relative  residing  at  a  distance.  The 
children  soon  forgot  their  al)normal  speech,  and,  as  both  the  par- 
ents are  dead,  it  is  not  likel}'  that  any  more  relics  of  it  will  be 
recovered. 

How  soon  such  memories  fade  from  the  minds  of  both  speakers 
and  hearers,  and  how  little  attention  such  incidents  attract,  is  shown 
by  another  case,  which  occurred  some  twenty  years  ago  in  the  fam- 
ily of  one  of  my  nearest  neighbors  and  friends,  but  was  so  little 
noticed  that  I  had  never  heard  of  it  until  the  present  jear.  In 
this  family  the  two  3-oungest  children  —  a  bo}'  and  a  girl  —  were 
twins,  and  as  usually  hap[)ens,  were  left  much  together.  When 
thej'  were  three  or  four  years  old  they  were  accustomed,  as  their 
elder  sister  informs  me,  to  talk  together  in  a  language  which  no 
one  else  understood.     The  other  members  of  the  family  called  it 

2 


18  SECTION    II. 

their  "  gibberish,"  but  otherwise  paid  little  attention  to  it.  The 
fiitl.cr  would  sometimes  say,  "  Hear  those  chiklreu  chMtteririg  !  " 
and  the  other  members  of  the  family  \»onld  listen,  and  smile  at  the 
stream  of  unintelligible  sounds.  The  twins  were  wont  to  ehmb  into 
their  father's  carriage  in  the  stable,  and  "  chatter  awaj,"  as  my  in- 
formant says,  for  hours  in  this  strange  language.  Their  sister 
remembers  that  it  sounded  as  though  tiie  words  were  quite  short. 
But  the  single  word  which  survives  in  the  family  recollection  is  a 
dissyllable,  —  the  word  for  milk,  which  was  cully.  Tlie  little  girl 
accompanied  her  speech  with  gestures,  but  the  bo}'  did  not.  As 
the}-  grew  older,  they  gradually  gave  up  their  peculiar  speech.  The 
boy  is  dead.  The  girl,  now  an  intelligent  and  accomplished  young 
lad}',  has  totall}'  forgotten  the  words  of  their  childish  speech,  though 
she  remembers  well  the  fact  of  using  it  and  the  amusement  it  ex- 
cited. She  remembers  also  that  the  others  spoke  of  them  as  "  talk- 
ing Scotch,"  or  "in  Scotch  fasliion."  Their  futlicr,  a  well-educated 
professional  gentleman,  was  of  Scottish  birth,  but  had  lived  much 
in  England  ;  and  neither  he  nor  any  of  the  children  had  any  marked 
accent  differing  from  that  of  ordinary'  English  speech. 

A  case  Avliich  recalls  that  of  the  Boston  boys  is  related  to  rac  by 
a  lad}'  friend  who  was  educated  in  Toronto.  She  remembers  per- 
fectly well  the  amusement  caused,  in  the  school  which  she  attended 
in  her  early  childhood,  by  two  little  boys,  sons  of  a  wealthy  gentle- 
man of  that  city,  who  were  accustomed  to  converse  together  in  a 
language  of  their  own.  Their  ages  were  about  five  or  six,  one 
being  somewhat  more  than  a  year  older  than  the  other.  The 
youngest,  however,  was  slightly  the  taller  of  the  two.  The}'  were 
line,  intelligent  boys,  and  were  always  together,  both  at  home  and 
in  the  school.  My  informant  knew  the  family,  which  was  a  rather 
large  one,  —  five  boys  and  a  girl.  These  children  were  left  much 
to  themselves,  and  had  a  language  of  their  own,  in  which  they 
always  conversed.  The  other  children  in  the  school  used  to  listen 
to  them  as  they  chattered  together,  and  laugh  heartily  at  the 
strange  speech  of  which  they  could  not  understand  a  word.  The 
boys  spoke  P^nglish  with  difficulty,  and  very  imperfectly,  like  per- 
sons struggling  to  express  their  ideas  in  a  foreign  tongue.  In 
speaking  it,  tiiey  had  to  eke  out  their  words  with  many  gestures 
and  signs  to  make  themselves  understood  ;  but  in  talking  together 
in  their  own  language,  they  used  no  gestures,  and  spoke  very 
fluently.     She  remembers  that  the  words  which  they  used  seemed 


ADDUESS    IIY    IIOUATIO      iA!-K.  19 

quite  short.  In  imitating  from  memory  tlieir  mode  of  speech  she 
uses  monosyUubles.  Tliey  had  a  nurse,  an  intelligent  nvddle-ajred 
woman,  who  brought  tlicm  to  the  sciiool  in  the  morning,  and  came 
for  them  in  the  afternoon.  She  hail  had  the  care  of  them  fiom  in- 
fancy, md  understood  their  language,  but  did  not  speak  it.  She  was 
accustomed  to  speak  to  them  in  Knglish,  and  the}-  would  reply  to 
her  in  their  own  tongue.  They  learned  but  little  at  the  school,  and 
had  api)arently  been  sent  there  chiefly  to  accustora  them  to  he  with 
children  of  their  own  age,  and  to  learn  to  speak  like  them.  ]\ly 
friend  knew  them  in  after  life,  as  grown-up  young  men,  when  they 
s[)oke  English  like  other  people. 

But  it  is  needless  to  multiply  examples.  The  instances  thus 
recorded  do  not  b\'  any  means  exhaust  the  list.  I  have  not  yet 
had  the  fortunate  opportunit}'  —  which  Dr.  Ilim  enjoyed  and  used 
to  such  good  advantage — of  personally  hearing  and  investigating 
such  a  child-language.  But  as  it  is  evident  that  its  development  is 
not  a  fact  of  ver}-  rare  occurrence,  we  ma}-  hope,  now  that  atten- 
tion has  been  drawn  to  the  matter,  that  this  interesting  subject  of 
inquiry  will  soon  be  thoroughly  studied  by  competent  observers. 
These  cases,  it  must  be  remembered,  are,  after  all,  merely  intensi- 
fied forms  of  a  phenomenon  which  is  of  constant  recurrence.  The 
inclination  of  very  young  children  to  employ  words  and  forms  of 
si)eecli  of  their  own  is  well  known,  though  it  is  onl^'  under  peculLir 
circumstances  that  this  language  acquires  the  extent  and  the  perma- 
nence which  it  attained  in  the  cases  now  recorded.  Along  with 
this  inclination  of  children,  a  corresiX)nding  disposition  of  their 
elders  in  conversing  with  them  will  be  noticed.  The  "  babj'-talk  " 
in  which  mothers  and  nurses  in  all  communities,  civilized  and 
savage,  are  wont  to  indulge,  is  in  some  respects  totalh'  distinct 
from  their  ordinar\'  speech.  It  is  utterly  devoid  of  inflections,  of 
articles,  and  of  pronouns,  has  its  own  pronunciation,  its  own  syntax 
and  construction,  and  man^-  peculiar  words.  The  imi)ortance  of 
this  baby-talk  as  an  element  of  linguistic  science  has  been  recog- 
nized by  eminent  scientific  investigators.  Dr.  Tylor,  in  the  fifth 
chapter  of  his  work  on  "  Primitive  Culture,"  touches  ujjon  this  sub- 
ject with  some  noteworthy  remarks  and  suggestions,  of  which  the 
general  tenor  is  strikingh-  confirmed  by  the  speech  of  the  Albany 
children.  "  Children's  language,"  he  observes,  "  may  give  a  valu- 
able lesson  to  the  philologist."  After  quoting  many  examples  of 
infantile  words  in  use  in  various  countries,  he'  adds :    "  In  this 


20  SECTION   U. 

langiingc,  the  theory  of  root-sounds  fairly  breaks  down."  "  It  is 
obvious,"  he  coutiiuies,  '•  that  the  loading  principle  of  their  forma- 
tion is,  not  to  adopt  words  distinguished  hy  tlie  expressive  eharac- 
ter  of  their  sound,  but  to  choose  somehow  a  fixed  word  to  answer 
a  given  purpose."  So  Mr.  George  P.  Marsh,  in  his  "Lectures  on 
the  English  Language,"  remarks,  that  tiie  question  whether  the 
power  of  speech  is  a  faculty  or  an  art  may  be  answered,  "  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  by  saying  that  the  use  of  articulate  language  is  a  faculty 
inherent  in  man,  though  we  cannot  often  detect  any  natural  and 
necessary  connection  between  a  particular  object  and  the  vocal 
sound  by  which  this  or  that  people  presents  it."  And  he  adds: 
"There  can  be  little  doubt  that  a  colony  of  children,  reared  with- 
out hearing  sounds  uttered  by  those  around  them,  would  at  length 
form  for  themselves  a  speech."  Man}'  other  citations  might  bo 
made,  showing  that  philologists  have  more  than  once  been  fairl}*  on 
the  track  of  the  cause  to  which  the  origin  of  linguistic  families  is 
due.  If  thej-  have  failed  to  follow  to  its  conclusion  the  path  into 
which  their  intuitions  had  led  them,  it  has  simply  been  from  lack 
of  the  evidence  now  at  hand. 

In  the  light  of  the  facts  which  have  now  been  set  forth,  it  becomes 
evident  that,  to  insure  the  creation  of  a  speech  which  shall  be  the 
parent  of  a  new  linguistic  stock,  all  that  is  needed  is  that  two  or 
more  30ung  children  should  be  placed  by  themselves  in  a  condition 
where  they  will  be  entirely,  or  in  a  large  degree,  free  from  the  pres- 
ence and  influence  of  their  elders.  The}'  must,  of  course,  continue 
in  this  condition  long  enough  to  grow  up,  to  form  a  household,  and 
to  have  descendants  to  whom  they  can  communicate  their  new 
speech.  We  have  only  to  inquire  under  what  circumstances  an 
occurrence  of  this  nature  can  be  expected  to  take  place. 

There  was  once  a  time  when  no  beings  endowed  with  articulate 
speech  existed  on  this  planet.  When  such  beings  appeared,  whether 
at  one  centre  or  at  several,  the  spread  of  this  human  population 
over  the  earth  would  necessarily  be  gradual.  So  very  slow  and 
gradual,  indeed,  has  it  been,  that  many  outlying  tracts  —  Iceland, 
Madeira,  the  Azores,  the  Mauritius,  St.  Helena,  the  Falkland 
Islands,  Bounty  Island,  and  others — have  only  been  peopled 
within  recent  historical  times,  and  some  of  them  during  the  present 
century.  This  diffusion  of  population  would  take  place  in  various 
wa^'s,  and  under  many  different  impulses ;  —  sometimes  as  the 
natural  result  of  increase  and  overcrowding,  sometimes  through  the 


ADDRESS    «Y   IIOKATIO   HALE.  21 

dispersion  caused  by  wars,  frequently  from  a  spirit  of  adventure, 
and  oecasionully  Ity  accident,  as  wlien  a  canoe  was  drifted  on  an 
unknown  shore.     In  most  instances,  a  considerable  party,  compris- 
in<^  many  families,  would  emigrate  together.     Such  a  party  would 
carr}'  their  language  with  them ;  and  the  change  of  speech  which 
their  isolation  would  produce  would  be  merely  a  dialectical  dilfer- 
encc,   such  as  distinguishes  the  (Ireek  from  the  Sanscrit,  or  the 
Ethiopic  from  the  Arabic.     The  basis  of  the  language  would  remain 
the  same.     No  length  of  time,  so  far  as  can  be  inferred  from  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge,  would  sullice  to  disguise  the  re- 
semblance indicating  the  common  origin  of  such  diulect-languages. 
IJut  there  is  another  mode  in  which  the  spread  of  population  might 
take  i)lace,  that  would  lead  in  this  respect  to  a  very  different  result. 
If  a  single  pair,  man  and  wife,  should  wander  olf  into  an  uniidial)- 
ited  region,  and  there,  after  a  few  years,  both  jjerish,  leaving  a  fani- 
il}-  of  young  ehihlren  to  grow  up  by  themselves  and  frame  their 
own  speech,  the  facts  which  have  been  adduced  will  show  that  this 
speech  migiit,  and  probably  would,  be  an  entirely  novel  language. 
Its  inflections  would  certainl}'  be  different  from  those  of  the  parent 
tongue,  because  the  speech  of  children  under  five  years  of  age  has 
commonly  no  inflections.     The  great  mass  of  vocables,  also,  would 
probably  be    new.      The   strong  language-making  instinct  of  the 
younger  children  would  be  suflicient  to  overpower  an}-  feeble  niem- 
or}'  which  their  older  companions    might  retain   of  the   parental 
idiom.     The  natural  disposition  of  the  oldest  child,  indeed,  would 
be  to  yield  to  the  youngest  in  this  regard.     lie  would  feel  it  to  be 
essential  that  he  should  make  his  little  brother  or  sister  understand 
him,  and  he  would  adopt  without  hesitation  any  manner  of  speech 
that  would  insure  this  object.     The  bab3-talk   the  "  children's  lan- 
guage," would  become  the  mother-tongue  of  the  new  community, 
and  of  the  nation  that  would  spring  from  it. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  habits  of  the  hunting  tribes  of 
America  know  how  common  it  is  for  single  families  to  wander  off 
from  the  main  band  in  this  manner,  —  sometimes  following  the 
game,  sometimes  exiled  for  offences  against  the  tribal  law,  some- 
times impelled  by  the  all-powerful  passion  of  love,  when  the  man 
and  woman  belong  to  families  or  classes  at  deadly  feud  or  forbid- 
den to  intermarry.  In  these  latter  cases,  the  object  of  the  fugitives 
would  be  to  place  as  wide  a  space  as  possible  between  themselves 
and  their  irate  kindred.     In  modern  times,  when  the  whole  country 


22 


HECTION    II. 


is  occupied,  tlic'ir  (light  would  incrcly  carry  tlicni  Into  the  territory 
oriuiotiicr  trilio,  among  whom,  if  well  receivtHJ,  they  would  (luiciily 
he  ahsorlu'd.  Jlut  in  tlie  primitive  period,  when  a  vast  uniniialiited 
region  slrcU'iied  heCore  tiiem,  it  would  l)e  easy  for  tiieni  to  fnid 
some  shi'llen-d  nook  or  IVuilful  valU'v,  in  wiiich  tliey  might  hope 
to  remain  secure,  ami  rear  their  young  brood  unmolested  by  human 
neighbors. 

If,  under  such  circumstances,  disease  or  the  casualties  of  a  hinit- 
cr's  lif(!  should  carry  olf  the  parents,  the  survival  of  the  children 
would,  it  is  evident,  depend  mainly  upon  the  nature  of  the  climato 
and  the  ease  with  which  food  could  i»e  procured  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year.  In  ancient  Europe,  after  the  present  dimatal  conditions  were 
established,  it  is  doubtfid  if  a  family  of  children  under  ten  years  of 
age  could  hav(^  lived  through  a  single  winter.  We  are  not,  there- 
fore, surprised  to  fnid  that  no  more  than  four  or  five  linguistic  stocks 
are  rei)resented  in  Europe,  and  that  all  of  them,  except  the  Basque, 
are  believed,  on  good  evidence,  to  have  been  of  comparatively  late 
intrfxluction.  Even  the  IJasque  is  traced  by  some,  with  nuicli  prol)a- 
bility,  to  a  source  in  North  Africa.  Of  northern  America,  east  of 
the  liocky  INIountains  and  north  of  the  tropics,  the  same  may  bo 
said.  The  climate  and  the  scarcity  of  food  in  winter  f(nl)id  us  to 
8upi)0se  that  a  brood  of  orphan  children  could  have  survived,  ex- 
cept possil)ly,  b}-  a  fortunate  chance,  in  some  favored  spot  on  the 
shore  of  the  Mexican  Ciulf,  where  .she  11- fish,  berries,  and  edible 
roots  arc  abundant  and  easy  of  access. 

IJut  there  is  one  region  where  Nature  seems  to  offer  herself  as 
the  willing  nurse  and  bountiful  step-mother  of  the  feeble  and  unpro- 
tected. Of  all  coimtries  on  the  globe,  there  is  probably  not  one  in 
which  a  little  Hock  of  ver}'  j'oung  children  would  find  the  means  of 
sustaining  existence  more  readil}'  than  in  California.  Its  wonder- 
ful climate,  mild  and  cfpiable  beyond  example,  is  well  known.  Mr. 
Cronise,  in  his  volume  on  the  "Natural  Wealth  of  California,"  tells 
us,  that  "  the  monthly  mean  of  the  thermometer  at  San  Eraneisco 
in  December,  the  coldest  month,  is  50° ;  in  September,  the  warm- 
est month,  Gl°."  And  he  adds :  "  Although  the  State  reaches 
to  the  latitude  of  Plymouth  Bay  on  the  north,  the  climate,  for  its 
whole  length,  is  as  mild  as  that  of  the  regions  near  the  tropics. 
Half  the  months  are  rainless.  Snow  and  ice  are  almost  strangers, 
except  in  the  high  altitudes.  There  are  fully  two  hundred  cloud- 
less da3-s  in  every  year.     Roses  bloom  in  the  open  air  through  all 


AUDUK88    BY    UOUATIO    IIALK.  23 

seasons."     Not  less  roniarkiiblo  than  tliis  exiinisitc  flnnate  is  tbo 
astonisliing  variety  of  food,  of  iiinds  whifli  sooni  to  oiler  themselves 
to  the  tender  hands  of  ehililren,     IJerries  of  many  sorts  —  straw- 
berries, biaciiberries,  currants,  raspberries,  and  sahnon-berries  — 
are  indigenous  and  abundiint.     Large  fruits  and  edible  nuts  on  low 
and  penilent  bouglis  may  be  said,  in  ^liltoii's  phrase,  to  "  hang 
amiable."     Mr.  Cronise  enumerates,  among  others,  the  wild  cherry 
and  plum,  which  "  grow  on  bushes  "  ;  the  barberry,  or  false;  grape 
(lierberis  herbosa),  a  "low   shrub."    which    bears    edible    fruit; 
and  the  Californian  horse-chestnut  (vZ<''*tv///<s  (JdliJ'ornica),  "a  low, 
s|)reading  tree  or  shrub,  seldom  exceeding  lifteon  feet  high,"  which 
"  bears  abundant  fruit,  much  used  by  the  Indians."     Then  there 
are  nutritious  roots  of  various  kinds,  maturing  at  dilferent  seasons. 
Fish  swarm  in  the  rivers,  and  are  taken  b}-  the  simplest  means. 
In  the  sin-ing,  Mr.  Powers  informs  us,  the  wlii  elish  "  crowd  the 
creeks  in  such  vast  numbers  that  the  Indians,  by  simply  throwing 
in  a  little  brushwood  to  impede  their  motion,  can  literally  scoof) 
thoin  out."     Shell-llsh  and  grubs  abound,  and  are  grcedil}-  eaten  by 
the  natives.     Earth-worms,  which  are  found  everywhere  and  at  all 
seasons,  are  a  favorite  article  of  diet.     As  to  clothing,  we  are  told 
by  the  authority  just  cited  that  "•  on  the  jjlains  all  adult  males  and 
all  children  up  to  ten  or  twelve  went  perfectly  naked,  —  while  the 
women  wore  only  a  narrow  strip  of  deer-skin  around  the  waist." 
Need  wo  wonder  that,  in  such  a  mild  and  fruitful  region,  a  ;:;roat 
number  of  separate  tribes  were  found,  speaking  languages  which  a 
carefid  investigation   has   classed  in   nineteen   distinct   linguistic 
stocks  ? 

The  climate  of  the  Oregon  coast  region,  though  colder  than  that 
of  California,  is  still  far  milder  and  more  ctpiable  than  that  of  the 
same  latitude  in  the  cast ;  and  the  abundance  of  edible  fruits,  roots, 
river-fish,  and  other  food  of  easy  attainment,  is  very  great.  A 
family  of  young  children,  if  one  of  them  were  old  enough  to  take 
care  of  the  rest,  could  easily  be  reared  to  matiuity  in  a  sheltered 
nook  of  this  genial  and  fruitful  land.  We  are  not,  therefore,  sur- 
prised to  find  that  the  number  of  linguistic  stocks  in  this  narrow 
district,  though  less  than  in  California,  is  more  than  twice  as  large 
as  in  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  that  the  greater  portion  of  these 
stocks  are  clustered  near  the  Californian  boundary. 

It  is  not,  however,  necessary  to  suppose  that  in  every  instance 
both  parents  had  perished.     If  only  one  of  them  died,  leaving  four 


24  SKCTION    H. 

or  five  children,  — the  oldest  perhaps  not  more  than  six  years  old, 
—  the  surviving  parent,  having  no  adult  companion  to  converse 
witii,  would  inralliltlv,  as  a  matter  of  absolute  necessity,  adopt  the 
language  of  the  children,  and  to  a  large  extent  fall  in  with  their 
ways  of  tiiought.  The  only  differisnce  would  be,  that  when,  with 
the  growth  of  the  children  in  yenrs  and  intelligence,  grammatical 
inflections  came  to  be  gradually  developed,  these  inflections,  if  not 
the  same  as  those  of  the  parent's  mother-tongue,  Avould  probably  be 
of  a  similar  cast.  Indeed,  this  to  sor.ie  extent  might  be  expected, 
even  when  both  parents  had  perished.  Some  reminiscences  of 
the  parental  speech  would  probably  remain  with  the  older  children, 
and  be  revived  and  strengthened  as  their  faculties  gained  force. 
Thus  we  maj'  account  for  the  fact  which  has  perplexed  all  inquirers, 
that  certain  unexpected  and  sporadic  resemblances,  both  in  gram- 
mar and  in  vocabulary,  Avhich  can  hardly  be  deemed  purely  acci- 
dental, sometimes  crop  ui)  between  the  most  dissimilar  languages. 
Such  are  the  surprising  resemblances  between  some  of  the  Ar^'an 
and  Semitic  numerals ;  and  such  are  the  curious  concordances  be- 
tween some  of  the  Aryan  and  the  IMalayo-l*olynesian  roots,  which 
perplexed  and  for  a  time  misled  so  great  a  philologist  as  IJopp. 
Among  languages  of  the  polysj'nthetic  class,  few  are  more  unlike 
than  the  Algonkin,  the  Iro<]uois,  and  the  Dakota ;  jet  in  all  three 
the  word  for  loot  is  almost  identical.  This  word  is  «//,  or,  witlujut 
the  terminal  consonant,  si  (in  English  orthography  see).  A  word 
so  brief,  distinct,  and  easy  of  utterance  would  be  likely  to  survive 
in  the  memory  of  an}'  child  of  four  or  five  years  who  had  heard 
it  as  frequently  repealed  by  the  mother  as  this  word  would  cer- 
tainly' be. 

We  must  also  remember  that  a  certain  similarity'  in  the  form  or 
mould  of  all  idioms  spoken  by  tribes  of  the  same  race,  even  when 
these  idioms  originated  from  such  chiUl-languages,  would  be  apt  to 
arise,  partly  from  similarity  of  character  and  circumstanc(>s,  and 
partly  from  the  inherited  conformation  of  the  brain.  Of  the  former 
class  of  influences,  —  the  ellect  of  the  environing  circumstances, 
first  on  the  character  and  then  on  the  speech,  ^ — we  have  an  elab- 
orate and  most  suggestive  discussion  in  INIr.  Byrne's  recent  work 
on  the  "  Principles  of  the  Structure  of  Language."  As  regards 
the  inherited  powers  of  mind,  we  have  to  consider  that  when, 
in  any  group  of  children,  the  faculty  of  language  was  strong,  their 
speech  would  probably  develop  into  a  highly  complex  idiom,  like 


ADDUESS   BY    HORATIO    HALE.  25 

tlie  Aryan,  the  Semitic,  the  Basque,  or  the  Algonkin ;  when  this 
ruculty  was  loss  powerful,  the  speech  would  be  simpler,  like  the 
Malayan,  the  Mongol,  and  the  Maya ;  and  when  it  was  very  weak, 
the  language  would  remain,  like  the  Chinese  and  Anamese,  in  tlie 
monosyllabic  or  infantile  stage.  It  is  proper,  further,  to  bear  in 
mind,  that  a  strong  or  weak  capacity  for  language  does  not  neces- 
sarily imp]}'  a  corresponding  strength  or  weakness  of  the  other 
intellectual  powers.  On  this  point  Professor  Whitney,  in  his  "  Life 
and  Growth  of  Language,"  well  observes  :  "  The  Chinese  is  a  inost 
striking  example  of  how  a  community'  of  a  vcrj'  high  grade  of  gen- 
eral abilit}'  ma}'  exhibit  an  extreme  inaptitude  for  fertile  linguistic 
develo})ment.  AVe  ma}'  suitably  compare  this  with  the  grades  of 
aptitude  shown  bj'  various  races  for  plastic,  or  pictorial,  or  nnisical 
art,  which  by  no  means  measure  their  capacity  for  other  intellectual 
or  spiritual  products." 

A  glance  at  other  linguistic  provinces  will  show  how  aptly  this 
explanation  of  the  origin  of  language-stocks  evei'jwhere  applies. 
Tropical  Brazil  is  a  region  which  combines  perpetual  summer  with 
a  profusion  of  edible  fruits  and  other  varieties  of  food,  not  less 
abundant  than  in  California.  Here,  if  anywhere,  there  should  be  a 
great  number  of  totallv  distinct  languages.  We  learn  on  the  best 
authority,  that  of  Baron  J.  J.  von  Tschudi,  in  the  Introduction  to 
his  recent  work  on  the  "Organism  of  the  Khetshua  Language," 
that  this  is  the  fact.  He  says :  "I  possess  a  collection  made  by 
the  well-known  naturalist,  Joh.  Natterer,  during  his  residence  of 
many  years  in  Brazil,  of  more  than  a  hundred  languages,  lexically 
completel}'  distinct,  from  the  interior  of  Brazil."  And  he  adds : 
"  The  number  of  so-called  isolated  languages  —  that  is,  of  such  as, 
according  to  our  present  information,  show  no  relationship  to  any 
other,  and  which  therefore  form  distinct  stocks  of  greater  or  less 
extent  —  is  in  vSouth  America  very  large,  and  must,  on  an  approx- 
imate estimate,  amount  to  manj'  hundreds.  It  will  perhaps  be  pos- 
sible hereafter  to  include  many  of  them  in  larger  families,  but  there 
nuist  still  remain  a  considerable  number  for  which  this  will  not  be 
possible." 

The  explanation  which  the  learned  writer  gives  of  this  great 
diversity  of  languages  is  that  which  has  been  heretofore  received 
by  most  philologists.  "The  cause  of  this  remarkable  i)henomenon," 
he  writes,  "is  evidentl}'  to  be  found  in  the  subdivision  of  the 
Indian  population.     The  evidence  of  language  leads  to  the  conclu- 


2G  SECTION    H. 

sion  that  the  separation  of  families  and  tribes  from  the  main  body 
of  the  descendants  of  the  first  in-comers  must  have  taken  place  in 
A-ery  early  times.  In  their  wanderings  toward  the  south,  the  de- 
scendants of  these  straggling  hordes  must  have  separated  again 
and  again.  Many  of  them  may  have  been  brought  into  positions 
wliicli  were  remote  from  the  great  lines  of  migration,  may  there 
liave  remained  more  or  less  isolated,  may  have  naturally,  in  their 
new  relations  and  surroundings,  formed  a  new  vocabulary,  and 
have  cast  aside  and  forgotten  much  of  their  old  speech  as  useless 
in  their  new  circumstances.  But  this  forgetting  and  new-making 
took  place  not  only  in  the  names  given  to  objects,  but  in  all  lin- 
guistic expressions  as  well,  including  the  structure  of  words  and 
sentences.  Languages  wholly-  new  arose.  Frequentl}'  a  single 
family,  which  broke  off  from  the  horde,  and  moved  away  in  a 
separate  course,  has  given  rise  to  an  entirel}'  new  speech  " 

If  by  the  phrase  "  a  single  family-"  we  could  understand  such  a 
group  of  young  children  as  has  just  been  described,  this  explanation 
would  exactly  accord  with  the  view  proposed  in  this  i)aper.     Tliis, 
however,  is  evidently  not  the  writer's  moaning ;  and,  with  all  due 
deierence  to  the  eminent  and  justly  esteemed  author,  I  may  venture 
to  aflirm  that  the  process  which  he  describes  is  opposed  to  all  expe- 
rience and  observation.     There  is  no  Instance  known  of  a  ti'ibe 
or  family  of  grown-up  persons  losing  their  original  language  in 
the  way  he  has  supposed.     The  branches  of  the   great  IMalayo- 
Polynesian  family,  scattered  over  a  thousand  islands,  large   and 
small,  from  ^Madagascar  to  Hawaii,  have  retained  evcrywliere  the 
mass  of  their  vocabulary  anil  grammar  with  remarkable  uniformity. 
The  thorough  analyses  furnished  by  Dr.  F.  Miillcr,  in  his  latest 
work,  leave  no  room  for  doubt  on  this  point.     It  is  plain   that 
each  island  has  been  peopled  by  one  or  more  canoe-loads  of  emi- 
grants, bringing  their  language  with  them.     A  still  more  striking 
example  is  to  be  noted  in  Australia,  where  a  vast  region,  larger  than 
Brazil,  is  found  inhabited  by  hundreds,  perliaps  tiiousands,  of  petty 
tribes,  as  completely'  isolated  as  those  of  South  America,  but  all 
S})eaking  languages  of  one  stock.     And  if  we  inquire  whj'  many 
different  linguistic  stocks  have  not  arisen  in  that  region,  as  in  Cali- 
fornia, Brazil,  and  Central  Africa,  the  explanation  presents  itself  at 
once.     Though  the  climate  is  as  mild  as  in  any  of  these  regions, 
the  other  conditions  are  such  as  would  make  it  impossible  for  an 
isolated  group  of  young  children  to  survive.     The  whole  of  A  us- 


ADDRESS   BY   HORATIO   HALE.  27 

tralia  is  subject  to  severe  droughts,  and  is  so  scantily  provided 
with  edible  products  that  the  aborigines  are  often  reduced  to  the 
greatest  straits.  It  is  well  known  that  an  entire  exploring  party 
of  white  men,  well  provided  with  tire-arnis,  perished  of  famine  in 
attempting  to  traverse  the  interior.  The  suspicious  and  unsocial 
character  of  the  Australian  natives,  the  smallness  of  their  tribes, 
their  wide  dispersion,  and  the  little  connnunication  l)etween  them, 
are  all  well-known  facts.  If  linguistic  stocks  could  arise  in  the 
waj'  sui)posed  by  Ilcrr  von  Tschudi,  there  should  be  hundreds  in 
Australia ;  but  there  is  only  one. 

A  curious  ethnological  fact,  which  tends  strongly  to  confirm  the 
view  of  the  origin  of  linguistic  stocks  now  proposed,  is  the  circum- 
stance that,  as  a  general  thing,  each  linguistic  family  has  its  own 
mythology'.  This  remarkable  fact  has  been  noticed,  and  well  set 
forth,  l)y  Major  Powell ;  and  it  had,  I  may  add,  already  occurred  to 
myself  in  connection  with  the  present  inquiry,  in  which  it  finds  its 
sufficient  explanation.  Of  course,  when  the  childish  pair  or  grouj), 
in  their  isolated  abode,  framed  their  new  language  and  transmitted 
it  to  their  descendants,  they  must  necessaril}'  at  the  same  time  have 
framed  a  new  religion  for  themselves  and  their  posterity ;  for  the 
religious  instinct,  like  the  language-making  faculty,  is  a  part  of  the 
mental  outfit  of  the  human  race. 

But  we  are  now  brought  face  to  face  with  another  problem  of 
great  didicnlty.  The  view  which  has  just  biou  presented  shows 
that  all  the  vast  variety  of  languages  on  earth  may  have  arisen 
within  a  comparatively  brief  period  ;  and  many  facts  seem  to  show 
that  the  peopling  of  the  globe  by  the  present  nations  and  tribes 
of  men  is  a  quite  recent  event.  The  traditions  of  the  natives  of 
America,  North  and  South,  have  been  gathered  and  studied  of  late 
years,  by  scientific  inquirers,  with  great  care  and  valuable  results. 
All  these  traditions,  Eskimo,  Algonkin,  Iroquois,  Choctaw,  Mexi- 
can, Maya,  Chibcha,  reruviau,  represent  the  peoi)le  who  preserved 
them  as  new-comers  in  the  regions  in  which  they  were  found  by  the 
whites.  Ethnologists  are  aware  that  there  is  not  a  tradition,  a  mon- 
ument, or  a  relic  of  any  kind,  on  this  continent,  which  requires  us  to 
carry  back  the  history  of  any  of  its  aboiigiiuU  tribes,  of  the  existing 
race,  for  a  period  of  three  thousand  years.  In  the  Pacific  Islands 
the  recent  investigations  have  had  a  still  more  striking  and  definite 
result.  We  know,  on  sudiciently  clear  evidence,  the  times  when 
most  of  the  groups,  from  New  Zealand  to  the  Sandwich  Islands, 


28  SECTION   U. 

were  first  settled  bj-  their  Polynesian  occupants.  None  of  the  dates 
go  back  beyond  the  Christian  era.  Some  of  them  come  down  to 
the  last  centiuy.  In  Australia  the  able  missionary  investigators 
have  ascertained  that  the  natives  had  a  distinct  tradition  of  the 
arrival  of  their  ancestors,  who  entered  by  the  northwest  coast.  It 
is  most  unlikely  that,  among  such  a  barbarous  and  wandering  race, 
a  tradition  of  this  nature  should  be  more  than  tw(  '  isand  jcars 
old.  Probably  it  is  much  less  ancient.  "We  k  .\  positively  that 
the  neighboring  group  of  New  Zealand  was  settled  only  about  five 
hundred  years  ago.  Passing  on  to  the  old  continent,  we  find  that 
the  Japanese  historical  traditions  go  back,  and  that  doubtfully-,  only 
to  a  period  about  twent3'-five  hundred  years  ago ;  those  of  China, 
onl}'  about  four  thousand  years ;  those  of  the  Aryans,  vagucl}-,  to 
about  the  same  time ;  the  Assyrians,  more  surely,  a  little  longer ; 
and  the  Egyptians  to  the  date  fixed  by  Lepsius  for  Menes,  not 
quite  four  thousand  years  before  Christ.  No  evidence  of  tradition, 
or  of  an}-  monument  of  social  man,  points  to  his  existence  on  the 
earth  at  a  period  exceeding  seven  thousand  years  before  the  present 
time.  Yet  the  investigations  which  have  followed  the  discoveries 
of  Boucher  de  Perthes  have  satisfied  the  great  majorit}-  of  scientific 
men  that  human  beings  have  been  living  on  the  globe  for  a  term 
wliich  must  be  computed,  not  by  thousands  of  jears,  but  by  tens 
and  probabl}'  hundreds  of  thousands.  Writers  of  all  creeds,  and 
of  all  opinions  on  other  subjects,  concur  in  the  view  that  the  exist- 
ence of  man  goes  back  to  a  remote  period,  in  comparison  with 
which  the  monuments  of  Egypt  are  but  of  yesterdaj- ;  and  jet 
these  monuments,  as  has  been  said,  are  the  oldest  constructions  of 
social  man  which  are  known  to  exist.  How  shall  we  explain  this 
surprising  discrepancy?  How  shall  we  account  for  the  fact  that 
man  has  existed  for  possibly  two  hundred  thousand  years,  and  has 
onl}'  begun  to  form  societies  and  to  build  cities  within  less  tlian 
seven  thousand  years?  In  other  words,  how,  as  scientific  men, 
shall  we  bring  the  conclusions  of  geology  and  pala-ontology  into 
harmony  with  those  of  archaiology  and  history? 

Fortnnatel}',  the  geologists  and  physiologists  themselves,  b}'  their 
latest  discoveries,  have  furnished  the  means  of  clearing  up  the  per- 
plexities which  their  earlier  researches  had  occasioned.  We  learn 
from  these  discoveries  that,  while  a  being  entitled  to  the  name  of 
man  has  occupied  some  porti<  is  of  the  earth  during  a  vast  space 
of  time,  in  one  and  perhaps  twu  geological  eras,  the  acquisition  b}' 


ADDKESS    BY    HORATIO    HALE.  29 

this  being  of  the  power  of  speech  is  in  all  probabilit)'  an  event  of 
recent  occurrence.  The  main  facts  on  wliicli  tliis  opinion  is  based 
must  necessarily,  in  this  summary,  be  A'cry  briefly  stated.  For 
other  evidences,  reference  must  be  made  to  the  sources  where  they 
will  be  found  fully  set  forth. 

The  question  of  the  existence  of  man  in  the  tertiary  era  has  been 
so  thoroughly  and  ably  discussed  by  my  predecessor  in  this  oflice, 
Professor  Morse,  in  his  address  at  the  Pinladelphia  meeting  in 
1884,  that  I  need  not  add  a  word  on  that  subject.  The  fact  that 
man  existed  in  the  subsetiucnt  period,  which  is  known  among  Eng- 
lish geologists  as  the  pleistocene  era  and  ii  France  more  commonly 
as  the  quaternary  age,  is  questioned  by  no  one.  The  men  of  that 
era,  the  Palit'olithic  men,  as  they  are  styled,  arc  distinguished  by 
the  investigators,  as  is  well  known,  into  two  distinct  races,  belonging 
to  widel}'  dilferent  epochs.  These  races  arc  variously  designated  by 
the  eminent  authorities  to  whom  I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer,  and 
who,  while  they  differ  on  some  points,  are  on  the  the  main  question 
of  the  existence  and  the  distinction  of  these  races  fully  In  accord. 
These  authorities,  it  may  here  be  stated,  are,  for  France,  Prof, 
de  Quatrefages  and  Prof.  G.  de  Mortillet,  and  for  England,  Prof. 
Boyd  Dawkins.  The  views  of  M.  de  (Quatrefages  are  set  forth 
in  his  work  entitled  "Ilommes  Fossiles  et  Ilommes  Sauvages," 
published  in  1884,  and  in  his  well-known  treatise  on  "  The  Human 
Species,"  of  which  the  eighth  edition  has  appeared  during  the  present 
year.  The  work  of  M.  de  Mortillet,  "  Le  Prchistorique,"  appeared 
in  1883,  and  that  of  Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins,  "  Early  Man  in  Britain," 
was  published  in  1880.  Those  who  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing 
Professor  Dawkins  at  the  Montreal  meeting  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion, in  1884,  are  aware  that  his  researches  subsetiuent  to  the  publi- 
cation of  that  work  had  only  conflrmed  the  views  expressed  in  it. 
I  have  also  referred  to  the  work  of  Dr.  Paul  Topinard,  "  L'Anthro- 
pologic,"  of  which  the  fourth  edition  appeared  in  1884  ;  to  the  work 
of  Prof.  George  II.  von  IMcyor,  of  Zurich,  on  tlie  "  Organs  of 
Speech"  (1884),  to  the  monograph  of  Dr.  Robert  Baume,  of  Ber- 
lin, on  the  "  Jaw-Fragments  of  La  Naulette  and  the  Schipka  Cave  " 
(1884),  and  the  work  of  Prof.  Robert  Ilartmann,  of  Berlin,  on 
"Anthropoid  Apes,"  which  has  just  appeared. 

Professor  Dawkins  styles  the  earlier  PaltBolithic  race  the  "  River- 
drift  men,"  and  the  later  "  the  Cave-men."  The  River-drift  men 
were,  in  his  view,  hunters  and  savages  of  the  lowest  grade.     In  his 


30  SECTION  n. 

opinion,  the  mcc  is  now  "  as  completely  extinct  as  the  woolly  rlii- 
noc'cros  or  tlie  cave  bear."     We  have,  he  considers,  no  chie  to  its 
ctlniology  ;  and  its  relation  to  the  race  tliat  succeeded  it  is  doubt- 
ful.    The  Cave-men  were  of  a  much  higlier  order,  and  were  espe- 
cially remarkable  for  their  artistic  talents,     lie  is  inclined  to  believe 
that  their  descendants   survive   in  the  Eskimo ;    and  whether  we 
accept  this  view  or  not,  we  learn  from  it  that,  in  the  opinion  of  this 
eminent  investigator,  the  Cave-men  were  men  of  the  present  race. 
M.  de  (^uatrefages  designates  the  two  races  from  noted  localities 
where  their  osseous  remains  were  found.     The  River-drift  man  is 
witli  liini  the  "  man  of  Canstadt,"  from  the  place  near  which  the 
portion  of  a  cranium  belonging  to  this  race  was  discovered ;  and 
the  Cave-man  is  the  "man  of  Cro-Magnon,"  a  well-known  locality 
where  several  skeletons  of  this  race  were  brought  to  liglit.     M.  de 
Mortillet  draws  his  designations  from  the  places  in  which  the  im- 
plements used  by  the  different  races  are  founc  in  their  most  t\-pical 
form.     The  man  of  the  earlier  race  is  with  him  the  "  Chellean  man," 
from  Chellcs,  a  place  in  the  Department  of  8eine-et-Marne  ;  while 
the  later  is  the  ISIagdalenian  man,  from  La  Madeleine  in  the  De- 
partment of  La  Dordogne.     lie  makes  two  intermediate  races,  the 
Mousterian  and  the  Solutrean,  which  Professor  Dawkins  is  inclined 
to  combine  with  the  Magdalenian  in  a  single  race,  corresponding 
to  his  Cave-men.     But  in  one  respect  M.  de  IMortillet  makes  an 
even  stronger  distinction  than  that  of  Professor  Dawkins  between 
the  earlier  and  later  races.     Professor  Dawkins  expresses  no  opin- 
ion on  the  question  whether  the  River-drift  men  were  or  were  not 
endowed  with  tlic  faculty  of  speech.     Prof,  de  Mortillet  is  clear 
that  the}'  were  not.     This  view  might  fairl}*  enough,  as  will  be  seen, 
be  based  on  the  pithecoid  character  of  their  remains,  and  the  low 
grade  of  intellect  shown  by  their  imi)lemcnts  ;  but  M.  de  Mortillet 
finds  a  remarkable,  and,  in  his  opinion,  a  decisive  evidence,  in  a 
lower  jaw  belonging  to  this  race,  which  was  discovered  in  ISGfi  in 
the  cave  of  La  Naulette  in  Ik'lgium.     It  is  only  a  fragment,  but  it 
contains  the  central  curve,  or  symphysis,  forming  the  chin.     In  the 
inner  centre  of  the  ordinary  human  jaw,  there  is  at  this  curve  a 
small  bony  projection  or  excrescence,  usually  somewhat  rough  to  the 
touch,  which  is  known  to  English  and  American  aiuitomists  as  the 
"mental  tubercle,"  or  "the  genial  tubercle."     B}-  French  writers 
it  is  termed  the  apophyHe  (/mi,  or  genial  apophysis,  and  by  German 
authors  the  spina  mentalis.     These  epithets,  "mental"  and  "ge- 


ADDRESS   BY   HORATIO    HALE.  31 

nial,"  it  may  be  remarked,  are  not  the  common  English  adjectives 
with  which  we  arc  familiar.  "Mental"  is  here  derived,  not  from 
the  Latin  metis,  the  mind,  bnt  from  nientum,  the  chin ;  and,  in  the 
same  way,  "genial"  in  this  case  is  to  be  referred,  not  to  the  Greek 
ytVos,  family  or  kindred,  but  to  yeVvs  (or  its  derivative  ycvcKis), 
which  means  in  that  language  the  chin  or  under-jawbone.  AVitli 
this  preface,  I  give  in  full  the  author's  description  of  this  remark- 
able relic.  The  bone  is  small,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  that 
of  a  female.  But  though  small,  it  is  a  powerful  jawbone.  "  In 
fact,"  he  continues,  "  the  essential  character  of  this  fossil  is  its  ro- 
bustness, if  1  may  so  express  njyself.  The  bone  throughout  is  thick 
and  stock}',  and  thus  approaches  much  nearer  the  jaws  of  anthi-o- 
poids  than  those  of  man.  The  chin,  in  lieu  of  projecting  forward 
beyond  the  vertical  line,  inclines  backward.  It  is  something  inter- 
mediate between  the  man  and  the  monkej'.  The  sockets  of  the 
teeth  show  that  the  molars,  in  place  of  diminishing  from  the  fu'st 
to  the  last,  were  developed  in  the  opposite  wa}-.  Finally,  in  the 
middle  of  the  inner  curve  of  the  jaw,  in  place  of  a  little  excrescence 
called  the  '  genial  tubercle,'  there  is  a  hollow,  as  with  monkeys. 
We  may,  then,  sa}'  that  this  human  relic  is  the  most  pithecoid  that 
has  yet  been  found."  The  inference  to  be  derived  from  this  forma- 
tion is  thus  set  forth  b}' our  author:  "Speech,  or  articulate  lan- 
guage, is  produced  by  movements  of  the  tongue  in  certain  ways. 
These  movements  are  effected  mainly  by  the  action  of  the  muscle 
inserted  in  the  genial  tubercle.  The  existence  of  this  tubercle  is 
therefore  essential  to  the  possession  of  language.  Animals  which 
have  not  the  power  of  speech  do  not  possess  the  genial  tubercle. 
If,  then,  this  tubercle  is  lacking  in  the  Naulette  jawbone,  it  is  be- 
cause the  man  of  Neanderthal,  the  '  Chellcan  man,'  was  incapable 
of  articulate  speech." 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  from  this  brief  description,  that  M.  de 
Mortillet  imagined  that  the  genio-glossal  muscle,  the  muscle  vviiich 
moves  the  tongue,  and  which  in  fact,  as  Prof,  von  IMeyer  states, 
contributes  most  to  the  form  of  that  member,  was  lacking  in  the 
Chellcan  man,  as  it  certainly  is  not  lacking  in  the  anthropoid  apes. 
It  is  not  the  muscle  itself,  but  the  mode  of  its  insertion,  which  is 
to  be  regarded.  In  the  apes  and  other  lower  animals,  where  the 
tongue  is  mainl}-  used  to  aid  in  taking,  masticating,  and  swallow- 
ing food,  much  less  freedom  of  motion  is  required  for  it  than  in  man, 
for  whom  its  chief  use  is  in  the  man}-  delicate  movements  required 


32  SECTION   U. 

in  fmming  the  elements  of  articulate  utterance.  It  is  for  this  greater 
freedom  that  tiie  insertion  of  the  nnisclo  —  or  ratlier  of  the  muscles, 
for  there  are  two  of  these  —  in  tlie  genial  tubercle  or  tubercles  (for 
there  are  also  two  of  these)  is  required.  Or,  to  speak  still  more 
precisely,  it  should  rather  be  said  that  it  is  by  the  incessant  action 
of  the  muscles  pulling  on  tiie  bone  in  tliese  varied  movements,  that 
the  tubercles  themselves  must  be  deemed  to  have  been  developed. 
Such  is  the  explanation  given  by  the  able  anatomists  whom  I  have 
consulted  on  this  curious  and  important  point. 

It  will  seem  that  a  single  jawbone  affords  but  scanty  evidence  on 
which  to  base  so  momentous  a  conclusion.  But  conhrmation  has 
not  been  wanting.  In  August,  1880,  Professor  Maschka  found  in 
the  Schipka  cave,  in  Northeastern  Moravia,  among  bones  of  the 
elephant,  rhinoceros,  and  other  animals  of  the  pleistocene  era,  a 
fragment  of  a  human  jawbone,  bearing  a  remarkable  resemblance 
to  that  of  the  Naulette  cave.  Like  the  latter,  it  inclined  backward 
at  the  chin,  being  in  this  respect  intermediate  between  the  jaw  of 
the  ape  and  that  of  the  man  ;  and,  as  in  the  Naulette  jaw,  the  genial 
tubercle  was  wanting.  The  two  jawbones  have  been  submitted  to 
a  most  careful  and  thorough  scrutinj'  and  anal3'sis  by  Dr.  Robert 
IJanme,  a  distinguished  writer  on  dentistry-,  who  has  brought  out 
some  novel  and  important  points.  He  shows  that,  fi'om  the  great 
backward  inclination  of  the  chin,  the  jaw  must,  when  the  mouth  was 
open,  have  pressed  upon  the  lar^-nx  and  closed  it  entirely-,  utdess 
the  individual  to  whom  the  jaw  belonged  was  of  a  much  more 
prognathous  type  —  or,  in  other  words,  had  the  lower  part  of  the 
visage  much  more  projecting  —  than  is  known  in  an}'  now  existing 
race.  His  conclusion  is,  that  there  lived  in  the  diluvial  or  quater- 
nary age  races  of  men  who  were  markedl}'  inferior  to  the  lowest 
races  now  existing.  His  view  of  the  total  disapi)earance  of  these 
ancient  races,  therefore,  harmonizes  entirely  with  that  of  Professor 
Dawkins. 

This  view  is  further  confirmed  liy  an  examination  of  all  the 
crania  which  arc  believed,  on  good  grounds,  to  belong  to  this 
pristine  people.  These  skulls  are  not  numerous,  but  they  are 
sufHcient  in  number  to  characterize  a  race,  and  they  are  all  of  one 
cast.  The  Canstadt  skull,  the  Neanderthal  skull,  the  fragment  of 
the  Eguisheim  skull  and  that  of  the  skull  found  at  Briix  in  Aus- 
tria, as  well  as  the  skull  lately  discovered  at  Podhaba  in  Bohemia, 
all  belong  to  this  earlier  race,  and  all  show  the  same  peculiar  char- 


ADDKESS    BY    HORATIO    HALE.  33 

aetoristics,  —  namely,  a  reniarkablo  projection  of  the  superciliary 
rid<fes,  or  tlie  prominences  just  above  the  eyes,  and  an  extremely 
low  and  receding  forehead.  What  are  ternu-d  tlie  frontal  promi- 
nences, tliat  is,  the  projections  of  the  upper  part  of  the  forehead, 
arc  entirely  lacking.  In  both  these  respects  the  skulls  of  this 
race  unquestionably  approximate  to  those  of  the  higher  order  of 
apes,  the  orang,  the  gorilla,  and  the  chimpanzee.  Speaking  of  the 
Neanderthal  skull,  in  his  J>ectures  on  "Man's  Place  in  Nature," 
Professor  Iluxley  says:  "Under  whatever  aspect  we  view  this 
cranium,  whether  we  regard  its  vertical  depression,  the  enor- 
mous thickness  of  its  superciliary  ridges,  its  sloping  occiput, 
or  its  long  and  straight  squamosal  suture,  we  meet  with  ape-like 
characters,  stamping  it  as  the  most  pithecoid  of  human  crania  yet 
discovered."  But  he  adds  that  the  cubic  capacity  of  the  skull  is 
about  seventy-five  inches,  which  is  the  average  capacity  given  b}' 
Morton  for  Polynesian  and  Hottentot  skulls,  while  the  average 
capacity  of  the  gorilla  skull  is  only  about  one  third  of  that  amount. 
Thus  it  is  clear  that  the  Neanderthal  skull  is  that  of  a  man,  and  not 
of  an  ape.  But  in  these  ancient  crania  the  greater  portion  of  the 
capacitj'  is  in  the  posterior  part  of  the  skull.  The  narrowness  and 
depression  of  the  forehead  are  remarkable,  and  exceed  anything 
known  in  the  skulls  of  existing  races.  The  height  of  the  forehead 
depends,  of  course,  upon  the  development  of  the  frontal  lobe  of  the 
brain.  The  frontal  lobe  is  made  up,  as  regards  its  height,  of  three 
folds,  or  convolutions,  termed  by  anatomists  the  first,  second,  and 
third  frontal  convolutions.  These  convolutions  lie  one  above  the 
other,  the  third  being  the  lowest.  This  third  convolution  is  some- 
what thicker  than  the  other  two,  and  adds  therefore,  in  general, 
somewhat  more  to  the  height  of  the  forehead  than  either  of  the 
others.  Its  absence,  or  almost  entire  absence,  from  the  brain, 
would  produce  just  such  a  depression,  or  extraordinary  flatness, 
as  we  find  in  the  foreheads  of  these  ancient  skulls.  Now  it  is  a 
remarkable  fact,  that,  while  the  brain  of  a  monkey  is  much  smaller 
than  that  of  a  man,  its  general  outline  is  very  similar  to  that  of  the 
human  brain.  As  Professor  IIuxlc}-  sajs,  "the  brain  of  a  monkey 
exhibits  a  sort  of  skeleton  map  of  man's."  Most  of  the  convolu- 
tions which  are  found  in  the  one  are  present  in  the  other.  But 
there  is  one  remarkable  exception.  In  the  lower  apes  the  third 
frontal  convolution  is,  according  to  Ilartmann,  "entirely  absent." 
In  the  higher  or  anthropoid  apes,  it  appears,  but  only  in  a  rudi- 

8 


34  SKCTION    11. 

mcnl.iry  form.  "  Its  groat  devclopincnt  in  nipn,"  writes  r.cwfihrs. 
iiuuin,  "  coiistituti's  one  ol"  tlio  most  marivcd  clistiiiclions  botweon 
the  bruins  of  apes  and  those  of  men."  Tiiis  statement  has  been 
questioned,  as  there  is  some  dilferenee  of  opinion  in  regard  to  the 
analysis  of  tin-  (•(involutions  ;  but  IWschoir,  the  higlu'st  anllioritv, 
coiilirms  it;  and  Professor  lIovehie(ine,  in  an  article  recently  pub- 
lished in  the  Heme  IScloitifique  on  "The  Evolution  of  Language," 
repeats  the  statement  in  these  signilieant  words:  "We  mention 
here,  without  dwelling  upon  it,  that  tiie  faculty  of  language  stands 
in  elose  relation  with  a  certain  one  of  the  frontal  convolutions  of 
the  brain,  which  tlui  inferior  monkeys  do  not  possess,  and  which 
is  found  in  a  rudimentary  state  in  the  anthropoids,  but  of  which  the 
full  acciuisition  and  most  complete  development  have  made  man 
what  he  is,  the  master  of  articulate  speech." 

This  third  frontal  convolution  is  sometimes  called  "  Broca's 
convolution,"  from  the  fact  that  the  distinguished  French  physiolo- 
gist, Dr.  Paul  Broca,  was  the  fust  to  localize  the  faculty  of  lan- 
guage in  it.  This  faculty,  according  to  the  description  given  by  Dr. 
Topinard  in  his  "  Anthropology,"  has  its  seat  in  "  the  posterior 
portion  of  Broca's  third  frontal  convolution."  "  Its  surface  has  a 
vertical  height  of  about  four  centimeters  "  (or  a  little  over  an  inch 
and  a  half),  "and  an  antero-posterior  extension  of  from  two  to 
three  and  a  half  centimeters,"  that  is,  from  a  little  less  than  an 
inch  to  nearly  an  inch  and  a  half.  Any  lesion  or  disease  of  this 
part  of  the  brain,  as  is  well  known  to  medical  men,  produces  ai)ha- 
sia,  or  the  loss  of  the  power  of  speech.  If  this  convolution  were 
absent  from  the  human  brain,  or  were  only  present  in  a  rudimentary 
form,  as  in  the  anthropoid  apes,  the  man  would  be  incapable  of 
speech,  and  the  height  of  his  forehead  would  be  greatly  diminished. 
We  should  have,  in  fact,  the  precise  difference  which  exists  be- 
tween the  frontal  portion  of  the  Neanderthal  or  Podhaba  skull,  and 
that  of  the  average  skull  of  the  present  race  of  men. 

Some  eminent  writers,  and  one  who  may  justl}-  be  styled  pre- 
eminent, INI.  de  Quatreftiges,  have  sought  to  show  that  in  modern 
times  skulls  similar  to  those  of  this  ancient  race  have  been  met 
with,  and  in  some  cases  have  belonged  to  persons  of  no  mean 
intellectual  capacity.  In  his  admirable  work  on  "  Fossil  IMen  and 
Savage  INIen,"  he  gives  pictures  of  the  skulls  of  St.  INIansuy, 
Bishop  of  Toul,  and  of  a  Danish  gentleman,  named  Kai-Likk(i,  who 
took  some  part  in  politics  in  the  seventeenth  century.     These  are 


ADDHESa    HY    HORATIO    HALK.  35 

compared  with  the  Neanderthal  skull.  Tiie  measurements  arc  not 
given,  bnt  their  outline,  an<l  especially  tlu'  IVont  view  of  the  Kai- 
Likk(''  eraiiiiitn,  show  ii  distinct  superiority  in  hcii^iit  to  the  Nc- 
andertlial  skull ;  and  we  nuist  renieuihcr  tiiut  an  ecclesiastic  or  a 
politician  may  have  but  a  scant  devclopnii'iit  of  the  faculty  of 
lau<;uage,  and  may  yet  gain  distinction  by  other  intellectual 
qualities. 

'J'iie  man  of  the  Uiver-drift,  this  Canstadt  or  Chcllean  man,  was 
widely  dispersed  over  a  considerable  part  of  the  <j,lolie.  His 
presence  is  known  by  tlu;  [)eculiar  iin[)lements,  or  rafher  imple- 
ment, which  he  fashioned  ;  for  in  realit}',  as  Prof,  de  JNIortillet 
shows,  he  had  but  one,  thoun'ii  this  appears  in  varying  shape.  It 
is  called,  among  writers  on  this  subject,  by  dillereut  names.  Some 
speak  of  it  as  an  axe,  others  simply  as  the  "drift  implement," 
and  M.  de  Mortillet  descril)es  it  as  -'a  stone  fist."  It  is,  in  fact, 
simpl}'  a  stone  chipped  rudely  into  an  ovate  or  almond-like  shape, 
such  as  would  enable  a  man  to  grasj)  it  at  one  end.  and  strike  with 
it  a  more  effective  blow  than  he  could  strike  with  his  naked  list. 
It  could  be  used  in  this  manner  for  striking,  scraping,  or  pounding, 
and,  in  a  rough  w.iy,  for  cutting.  Then-  is  a  singular  rudi'uess  in 
its  appearance,  which  marks  at  once  the  low  intellectual  grade  of 
those  who  fashioned  and  used  it.  Dr.  Danii'l  Wilson,  in  his  work 
on  "  I'rehistoric  Man,"  has  some  striking  remarks  on  this  subject. 
He  observes  (in  his  third  chapter)  that  the  investigator,  in  examiu- 
ing  the  earliest  pahvolithic  implements,  might  imagine  tliat  he  had 
"  traced  his  way  back  to  the  lirst  crude  elforts  of  human  art,  if  not 
to  the  evolutionary  dawn  of  a  semi-rational  artificer.  It  is  a  signifi- 
cant fact,"  he  continues,  "that  no  such  clumsy  unshai)eliness  char- 
acterizes the  stone  implements  of  the  most  degraded  savage  races." 
And  he  adds,  that  this  essential  dilference  of  ty|)e  "  seems  to  i)oint 
to  some  unex[)laiued  dillerence  "  lietweeu  the  arlilicers  of  the  two 
periods.  The  explanation  of  this  dillerence,  which  struck  and 
perplexed  ihi.-^  most  discerning  observer,  seems  now  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  the  earlier  implements  were  the  i)roduction  of  beings 
whose  minds  were  in  the  undeveloped  state  that  must  necessarily 
characterize  men  who  had  not  yet  attained  the  i)ower  of  speech. 
No  one  will  question  the  justice  of  Professor  Whitne^y's  remark  on 
this  point:  "The  speechless  man  is  a  being  of  undeveloped  ca- 
pacities, having  within  him  the  seeds  of  everything  gn'at  and  good, 
but  seeds  which  only  language  can  fertilize  and  bring  to  fruit ;  ho 


36  SECTION  n. 

is  potontially  the  lord  of  natmo,  the  iiniip;o  of  his  Creator ;  hut  in 
})ri'si'iit  reality  he  is  only  a  more  ciimiiii^  brute  uiiioiijf  hnites." 
"  A  man  i)ori»  (luiiih,"  ol)servi's  I'rolessor  lIiixK'V,  *'  notwitiistaiKiiiijjj 
his  great  cerebral  mass  and  his  iiiiierituncc  of  strong  intelleetiial 
instincts,  would  be  capable  of  few  higlier  intellectual  manifestations 
tlian  an  (jrang  or  a  eiiimpanzee,  if  he  were  confined  to  the  soeiet}' 
of  dumb  associates."  We  need  not  tlieri'fore  be  surprisi'd  to  lind 
that,  wherever  traces  of  the  liiver-drift  men  have  been  discovered, 
whetlicr  in  France,  England,  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  India,  Nortli 
Africa,  or  America,  tiiese  traces,  which  consist  merely  of  their 
peculiar  implements,  are  everywhere  tiie  same,  showing  no  variety 
in  dilferent  regions,  and  no  apparent  improvement  tluring  the  lapse 
of  ages.  The  drill  implements  wiiich  the  fortunate  and  skilful 
researches  of  Dr.  Ablwtt  have  disclosed  in  New  Jersey  are  in  siiapo 
exactly-  like  those  which  earlier  investigators  had  unearthed  from 
the  river-banks  of  France  and  England. 

In  view  of  these  and  other  discoveries  indicating  the  existence 
of  I'alicolithic  man  in  America,  and  also  in  view  of  other  facts  re- 
lating to  the  fauna  of  the  two  hemispheres,  M.  dc  Mortillet  is 
deci<le(lly  of  opinion  that  during  a  considerable  i)ortion  of  tiie  early 
quaternar}'  era  a  connection  existed  between  Europe  and  America 
by  way  of  the  Faroe  Islands,  Iceland,  and  Clretinland.  It  is  well 
known  that  such  a  connection  existed  during  the  miocenc  era.  It 
was  broken  up  in  the  pliocene  age.  Hut,  as  we  know,  a  vast  ele- 
vation of  land  in  Europe  took  place  during  the  Glacial  Epoch  of 
the  quaternary  or  i)leistocene  age.  The  facts  adduced  by  Pro- 
fessor Boyd  Dawkins,  in  his  "  Early  INIan  in  Britain,"  show  that, 
if  this  elevation  attained  the  height  of  five  hundred  fathoms, 
it  must  have  restored  the  connection  between  the  two  continents. 
He  also  shows  that  tiie  elevation  did  actually  reach,  at  least  in  the 
region  of  the  Mediterranean,  a  height  of  at  least  four  hundred  fath- 
oms. An  additional  rise  of  a  hundred  fathoms  in  the  north,  which 
may  well  be  supposed,  would  have  restored  the  "  great  tertiary 
bridge,"  and  enabled  the  River-drift  man,  with  the  various  other 
animals  of  his  epoch  which  are  found  on  both  continents,  to  pass 
from  one  to  the  other. 

But  when  the  next  race,  which  is  styled  by  M.  de  Quatrefages 
the  race  of  Cro-Magnon,  appeared,  the  connection  between  the  two 
continents  had  long  ceased  to  exist.  The  Great  Ice  Age  had  passed 
away,  and  Europe  was  assuming  its  present  condition.    This  race 


ADDIIKSS   HY   imnATIO    II.M.K.  87 

of  Cro-^ragnon  od'criMl,  in  soino  rcspocts,  the  stroiifrost  possible 
contniHt  U)  till'  prc'cudiiig  raci?  of  CiiiiHtadt,  or  Hivcr-diill  nicii.  In 
pinsiciil  (U'vclopnicnt  it  was,  to  use  the  expression  of  this  distin- 
guislied  writer,  '•  u  inagnilieeiit  race."  The  skull  is  large  and  well 
developed,  with  a  forehead  at  oiicc  wide  aiul  lofty.  The  capacity 
of  one  of  these  crania,  according  to  Hroca's  measurement,  was  not 
less  than  l,r»l)()  culiic  centinu'ters,  which  exceeds  hy  111)  centime- 
ters tile  average  size  of  I'arisian  skulls  of  the  present  day.  "Thus," 
adds  M.  de  <^>uatr<'fages,  "  in  this  savage,  u  contenip(jrary  of  tlu; 
mammoth,  vn-  lind  all  the  craiilological  characters  generally  re- 
garded as  the  signs  of  a  great  intellectual  development."  To  this 
may  he  added,  that  in  the  earliest  lower  jaw  of  this  race  which  has 
been  discovered  the  genial  tul)ercle  is  fully  developed.  The  man  of 
this  epoch  was  a  social  being,  endowed  with  the  facidty  of  speech. 
His  frontal  lobe  was  large  and  high,  and  every  convolution  of  the 
brain  must  have  existed  in  inuisual  size.  His  intellectual  pow- 
ers corresponded  with  this  di'velopmcnt.  Of  this  fact  we  have 
the  most  remarkable  and  indeed  astonishing  proof  in  his  works  of 
art,  —  his  pictures  engraved  on  pieces  of  stone,  ivory,  and  bone, 
and  his  sculi)tures  in  bone  and  ivorv.  Ilis  rei)rescntations  of  the 
animals  of  that  period  —  the  mannnoth,  the  reindeer,  the  elk,  the 
bear,  the  horse,  the  urus,  the  chamois,  the  whale,  the  pike,  and 
many  others  —  are  most  admirable  for  the  .artistic  skill  which  thej' 
display,  and  for  their  evident  truth  to  nature.  On  this  point  all 
ol)servers  are  agreed.  "  We  recognize  in  them,"  writes  ^I.  de 
IMortillct,  "  the  works  of  a  people  eminently  artistic.  In  these 
primitive  engravings  and  sculptures  we  remark  so  true  a  sense  of 
form  and  movement  that  it  is  almost  always  possible  to  determine 
oxactl}'  the  animal  represented,  and  to  perceive  the  intention  of  the 
artist.  Some  of  the  works  are  really  small  masterpieces."  "  So 
natur.-vl  are  the  attitudes,  so  exact  the  projjortions,"  writes  IM.  do 
Quatrcfages,  '■'  that  a  decorative  sculptor  of  our  own  days,  in 
treating  the  same  subject,  could  hardl}'  do  better  than  to  copy  his 
ancient  predecessor."  Dr.  "Wilson  speaks  in  the  highest  terms  of 
the  "  skill  and  intellectual  vigor"  manifested  in  these  works  of  art, 
and  adds  the  noteworthy  remark:  ''In  truth,  it  is  far  easier  to 
produce  evidences  of  deterioration  than  of  progress,  in  instituting 
a  comparison  between  the  contemporaries  of  the  mammoth  and 
later  prehistoric  races  of  Europe  or  savage  nations  of  modern  cen- 
turies."    In  short,  the  evidence  is  clear  and  unquestionable,  that, 


38  SECTION   11. 

while  the  earliest  race,  the  Itiver-drift  men,  were  in  form  and 
intellect  the  lowest  nice  of  human  beings  that  have  ever  existed, 
their  immediate  successors,  the  Cave-men,  or  race  of  Cro-Magnon, 
must  he  ranked,  in  shape  and  aspect,  in  cranial  development,  and 
in  intellectual  endowments,  among  the  very  higiiest. 

It  is  i)roper  to  observe,  that  M.  de  iMortillet  and  Professor 
Dawkins  make  a  distinction  between  the  Cave-men  and  the  "  Neo- 
lithic men,"  or  men  of  the  Polished  Stone  era,  who  immediately 
followed  them  ;  and  they  ascribe  the  remains  of  Cro-IMagnon  to  the 
latter  I'ace.  M.  de  IMortilii-t  admits,  however,  that  the  peoi)le  of 
Cro-Magnon  Avere  "  evitlently  descendants  of  the  jMagdalenians,"  or 
Cave-men,  who  wrought  these  works  of  art ;  and  Professor  Dawkins 
shows  that  the  art-loving  Cave-men  and  the  less  artistic  Neolithic 
poi)ulation  were  at  one  time  contemporaries.  Jt  should  be  added, 
that  the  fact  that  this  artistic  race  lived  at  the  same  time  with  the 
mannnoth,  which  is  now  extinct,  affords  no  evidence  of  its  great 
antiquity.  The  mammoth  was  merely  a  variety  of  the  elephant, 
differing  so  little  from  the  existing  varieties  that  some  naturalists 
have  refused  to  consider  it  a  distinct  species.  It  proliably  became 
extinct  at  a  (piitc  recent  period.  Another  extinct  mammal,  tlic 
great  Irish  elk,  which  was  hunted  both  by  the  Cave-men  and  by 
the  Neolithic  men,  survived  down  to  the  Bronze  age  ;  and  the  urns, 
another  animal  of  the  quaternary  era,  only  became  extinct  a  few 
centuries  ago.  The  Cave-men  of  Professor  Dawlvins,  the  Cro-JNIag- 
non  race  of  I'rof.  de  Quatrefages,  were  really  a  modern  people, 
—  a  people  of  our  own  age.  And  the  question  naturall}'  arises, 
When  did  this  age,  the  age  of  speaking  man,  commence?  The 
answer  will  doubtless  surprise  many  persons  who  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  consider  the  question  without  regard  to  the  primary-  and 
all-imi)ortant  distinction  between  the  two  races  of  men,  —  the 
speechless  and  the  speaking  race.  The  former  can,  no  doubt,  be 
traced  back  to  an  immense  and  undefined  antiquity.  The  appear- 
ance of  the  latter  dates  back  probably  less  than  ten  thousand 
years. 

We  might  feel  tolerably  sure  of  this  fact,  as  a  conclusion  of 
sin]i)le  reasoning.  It  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  a  people  pos- 
sessing the  intellectual  endowments  of  the  Cro-Magnon  race  would 
remain  long  in  an  uncivilized  state,  if  tlR\y  were  once  i)laced  in  a 
countr}-  where  the  climate  and  other  surroundings  were  favorable 
to  the  increase  of  population  and  to  improvement  in  the  arts  of  life. 


ADDKF.SS    I5Y    UOKATIO    ll.VLK.  39 

"Even  ill  the  thon  rigorous  climate  and  other  hard  conditions  of 
Western  Kiu-ope,  they  liacl  advancetl,  as  Dr.  I'aul  Itroea  declares, 
*'  to  the  very  threshold  of  civilization."  What  must  they  have 
become  in  Kgypt  and  in  Southern  Asia?  In  point  of  fact,  during 
a  comi)aratively  brief  si)ace  of  time,  ranging  from  five  thousand  to 
seven  thousand  years  ago,  the  men  of  these  regions  developed  in 
widely  distant  centres  —  in  Egypt,  in  Mesopotamia,  in  I'lKcuicia, 
in  Northern  India,  and  in  China  —  a  high  and  varied  civilization 
and  culture,  whose  memorials,  in  their  works  of  art  and  (heir  litera- 
ture, astonish  us  at  this  day,  and  in  some  respi'cts  (k'(y  imitation. 
To  what  circumstance  can  we  attribute  this  sutldcn  anil  wonderful 
flowering  of  hiunan  genius,  after  countless  ages  of  torpidity,  but  to 
the  one  all-sullicient  cause,  —  the  acquisition  of  the  powei'  of  speech? 
Many  skilled  obsi'rvers  have  sought  to  discover  by  various  indica- 
tions, such  as  the  accinnulation  of  del)ris  in  caves,  the  layers  of 
cartli  formed  b}'  streams,  the  growth  of  bogs,  and  other  evidences, 
the  time  which  has  ehipsi'd  from  tiie  era  of  the  Cave-men  and  the 
Neolithic  race  to  our  own  time.  '  Professor  Dawkins,  in  his  account 
(given  in  his  work  on  "  Cave-iruntiug")  of  (he  exploration  of  the 
Victoria  Cave,  at  Settle  in  Yorkshire,  makes  an  estimate,  from  the 
uccunuihition  of  talus  in  the  cave,  of  the  time  whicli  has  elapsed 
since  the  cave  was  occupii'd  by  Neolithic  man,  anil  fixes  it  at  about 
•1,800  or  0,000  years.  JMany  other  investigators  have  reached  sim- 
ilar results.  Their  conclusions  are  well  summed  up  by  I'rof.  Alex- 
ander Wini'hell,  in  his  work  entitled  '*  Preadaini(es."  "IMorlot,"  he 
tells  us,  ''from  the  stu*!}' of  tlu'  layers  constituting  the  '  cone  of 
the  Tiniere,'  —  a  deposit  formed  b^- ji  torrent  discharging  itself  into 
the  Lake  of  (ieneva,  —  concluded  that  the  rolishcd  Stone  epoch 
dates  l)ack  1,700  to  7,000  years,  (iillieron,  from  researches  at  the 
Bridge  of  Miele,  is  led  to  lix  the  ci)ocli  of  Polished  Stone  at  (1,700 
years.  Steenstrup,  from  investigations  in  the  bogs  of  Denmark,  is 
led  to  regard  1,000  years  as  the  mininnim  for  that  epoch.  De  Ferry, 
from  a  study  of  the  river-drifts  of  the  Sauiie,  puis  the  Polislied 
Stone  epoch  at  ■\,'AS',\  years,  anil  the  ei)och  of  the  manimotli  at  r»,.s  1 1 
to  7, 30;')  years,  —  "fortunate,"  adds  Professor  Winchell,  dryly,  "if 
the  thousands  are  as  exact  as  the  units  in  thes(>  figures."  Areelin, 
he  further  tells  ns,  from  a  se|)araio  study  of  the  drifts  of  the  same 
river,  arrives  at  a  very  close  agreement  with  De  Ferry,  i)utting 
the  epoch  of  Polished  Stone  from  ,'5,000  to  1,000  years  back,  and 
the  blue  claj-,  containing  the  mammoth,  from  G,700  to  8,000  years. 


40  SECTION    H. 

Finallj',  Le  Hon,  in  view  of  all  tlic  results,  fixes  the  age  of  Polished 
Stone  III  from  1,000  to  0,000  years,  the  age  of  the  reindeer  (which 
is  in  fact  the  age  of  Professor  Dawkins's  C'ave-men)  at  a  point 
beyond  7,000  years,  and  carries  back  the  age  of  the  niannnoth  to 
an  indefinite  period.  All  these  estimates  are  in  substantial  accord ; 
and  none  of  them  place  the  appearance  of  the  Neolithic  race,  or 
men  of  the  I'olished  Stone  epoch,  earlier  than  seven  thousand  years, 
or  that  of  the  Cave-men,  or  men  of  the  Reindeer  period,  more 
than  eight  thousand  years  back.  The  terms  in  each  case  are  as 
likel}'  to  be  less  than  tho<^e  numbers  as  they  are  to  be  greater. 
It  is  impossible  not  to  yield  assent  to  such  a  mass  of  concurrent 
evidence. 

If  a  pair  of  human  beings,  male  and  female,  endowed  with  speech 
and  possessing  the  faculties  of  the  earliest  known  people,  the  Cro- 
JNIagnon  race,  appeared  in  some  region  of  the  old  continent  where 
the  climate  and  the  natural  productions  were  favorable  to  the  exist- 
ence of  men,  M'hat  time  would  be  required  for  their  descendants  to 
become  numeroufc,  enough  to  found  the  early  communities  of  Eg3'l)t 
and  Mesopotamia,  and  to  spread  into  Europe  and  Eastern  Asia? 
The  question  is  easil}'  answered.  Supposing  the  population  to 
double  only  once  in  fifty  j-ears,  which  is  a  very  low  estimate,  it 
would  amount  in  twelve  hundred  years  to  about  fort}'  millions,  and 
in  fourteen  hundred  years  would  be  over  six  hundred  millions,  or 
nearl}'  half  the  present  population  of  the  globe.  That  less  than  a 
thousand  j'ears  will  sufTice  to  create  a  high  civilization,  tlie  exam- 
ples on  our  own  continent  presented  b}'  the  INIexicans,  the  Mayas, 
the  Muyscas,  and  the  Peruvians  amply  prove.  And  that  the  same 
space  of  time  would  be  sufficient  for  the  development  of  the  plnsi- 
cal  peculiarities  which  characterize  the  various  races  of  men,  by 
climatic  and  other  influences,  is  made  clear  by  the  evidence  accumu- 
lateil  b}'  Prichard,  De  C^uatrefages,  Huxley,  and  other  careful  and 
trustwortii}-  investigators.  Nor  need  the  change  of  climate  which 
was  undoubtedly  in  progress  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Cro-lMagnon  race,  and  which  is  believed  to  have  con- 
tributed to  the  extinction  of  the  mannnoth  and  otlier  animals  of 
that  era,  have  occupied  a  longer  period.  In  fact,  the  observations 
and  estimates  just  quoted  from  Professor  Winchell  seem  to  show 
clearh'  that  it  did  not.  If  the  diversity  of  languages  has  had  its 
origin  in  the  cause  suggested  in  this  essay,  and  ma}'  therefore  have 
arisen  in  any  period,  however  brief,  during  which  the  peopling  of 


ADDKESS    BY    IIOUATIO    HALE.  41 

the  world  has  proceeded,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  grounds  what- 
ever for  referring  the  first  appearance  of  speaking  man  to  a  greater 
antiquity  than  eiglit,  or  at  the  most  ten,  thousand  years. 

How,  and  where,  did  this  momentous  apparition  occur?     These 
arc  questions  which  naturall}-  arise,  and  our  inquiry  would  not  be 
complete  without  a  brief  consideration  of  them.     That  the  "  speak- 
ing man"  of  our  era  is  a  descendant  of  the  ''speechless  man"  of 
the  River-drift  period  cannot  be  doubted.     We  have  not  to  deal 
with  the  origin  of  a  new  species,  but  simply  witli  tliat  of  a  variety. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  this  variety  arose  in  the  usual  way, 
by  what  is  termed  the  process  of  heterogencsis,  or,  in  other  words, 
the  law  by  which  the  oflspring  differs  from  the  parents.     As  every 
child  has   two   parents,   it  cannot  resemble    both,  and,   in    point 
of  fact,  it  never  exactly  resembles  either  of  them.     Ordinarily,  this 
unlikeness  is  restricted  within  certain  defined  and  rather  narrow 
limits  ;   but  occasionally,  as  when  dwarfs  or  giants  are  born  to 
parents  of  ordinary  stature,  it  is  vcr}-  great.     Among  the  lower 
animals,  when  such  offspring  propagate  their  like,  a  new  variety 
or  breed  arises,  which  sometimes  differs  very  widely  from  the  origi- 
nal stock,  —  as  occurred,  for  example,  in  the  Ancon  or  otter  breed 
of  sheep,  which  thus  originated  in  New  England,  and  in  the  horn- 
less cattle  which  have  overspread  several  provinces  of  Paraguay. 
That  in  some  family  of  the  primitive  speechless  race  two  or  more 
children  should  have  been  born  with  the  faculty  and  organs  of 
speech  is  in  itself  a  fact  not  specially  remarkable.    JMuch  greater  dif- 
ferences between  parents  and  offspring  frequently  appear.    Among 
these,  for  example,  is  one  so  common  as  to  have  received  in  physi- 
ology the  scientific  name  of  polydactylism,  — a  term  api)lied  to  the 
case  of  children  born  with  more  than  the  normal  number  of  fingers. 
M.  de  (^uatrefages  mentions  that  in  the  family  of  Zerah  Colburn, 
the  celebrated  calculator,  four  generations  possessed  this  peculiarity, 
which  commenced  with  Zerali's  grandfather.     In  the  fourth  genera- 
tion four  children  out  of  eight  still  had  the  supernumerary  fingers, 
although  in  eacli  generation  the  many-fingered  parent  had  married 
a  person  having  normal  hands.     Plainly,  he  adds,  if  this  C'olbnrn 
family  had  been  dealt    'ith  like  the  Ancon  breed  of  sheep,  a  six- 
fingered  variety  of  tlie  human  race  would  have  been  formed  ;  and 
this,  it  may  be  added,  would  have  been  a  far  greater  variation  than 
was  the  production  of  a  speaking  race  descending  from  a  speech- 
less pair.     The  appearance  of  a  sixth  finger  requires  new  bones, 


42  SECTION  n. 

muscles,  and  tendons,  with  additional  nerves  leading  ultimately  to 
the  hrain.  There  is  good  reason  to  l)elieve  that  the  first  endow- 
ment of  speech  demanded  far  less  change  than  this.  All  the  an- 
thropoid apes  can  utter  cries  of  some  sort,  and  some  of  them  can 
make  a  variety  of  sounds.  Professor  Ilartinann  expressly  informs 
us  that  the  larynx  in  these  animals  resembles  in  the  main  that 
of  man.  "We  cannot  doubt  that  our  primitive  ancestor,  the  ILnno 
alalus^  in  spite  of  his  name,  could  utter  man}'  sounds,  and  pos- 
sessed the  usual  vocal  organs.  Professor  Huxley  has  dwelt  with 
nuR-h  force  on  the  slight  anatomical  difference  which  might  exist 
between  the  speechless  and  the  speaking  man.  A  change  of  the 
minutest  kind,  he  tells  us,  in  the  structure  of  one  of  the  nerves 
which  comnnmicate  Avith  the  vocal  chords,  or  in  the  structure  of 
the  part  in  which  it  originates,  or  in  the  supply  of  blood  to  that 
part,  or  in  one  of  the  muscles  to  which  it  is  distributed,  might 
render  all  of  us  dumb.  And  he  adds  (in  words  similar  to  those 
already  quoted)  :  "A  race  of  dumb  men,  deprived  of  all  communi- 
cation with  those  who  could  speak,  would  be  little  indeed  removed 
from  the  brutes.  The  moral  and  intelle(;tual  difference  between 
them  iind  ourselves  would  be  practically  infinite,  though  the  natu- 
ralist should  not  be  aljle  to  find  a  single  shadow  even  of  specific 
structural  difference." 

In  the  actual  case,  so  far  as  can  bo  judged  from  the  osteology, 
the  changes  which  took  place  when  the  speaking  children  were  born 
to  the  speechless  pair  were  in  the  greater  development  of  the  cere- 
bral convolution  in  which  tlie  faculty  of  language  resides,  in  the  new 
direction  given  to  the  under  part  of  the  lower  jaw,  which  now  pro- 
jected forward  instead  of  receding,  and  in  the  increased  volume  and 
strength  of  the  genio-glossal  muscles,  which  by  their  acfion  devel- 
oped the  genial  tubercle,  and  gave  at  once  greater  si/e  and  more 
freedom  of  movement  to  the  tongue.  These  changes,  though  so 
important  in  their  results,  Averc  really  slight  comi)ared  with  the 
changes  in  a  case  of  polydactylism.  Tlic  chief  alteration  was,  of 
course,  that  which  took  place  in  the  brain.  It  was  simiily  fhe  on- 
laigcmcnt  of  a  fold  of  that  organ  ;  but  its  effect  was  prodigious,  and 
has  transformed  the  globe.  This  enlarged  fold  was  the  seal,  not 
merely  of  the  faculty  of  language,  but  of  rmmx  other  facullii's.  all  of 
which  showed  at  once  the  effect  of  their  newly  ac(iuireil  power. 

And  here  it  is  proper  to  remark  on  the  mistake,  or  the  confusion 
of  processes,  which  has  led  some  esteemed  writers  to  sujipose  that 


ADDKLSS    Ijy    HORATIO    HALE.  43 

the  first  spoaking  men,  originating  from  parents  of  weak  mental 
eapaeity,  must  have  i)artaken  oftlial  intelkictual  fcjebleness.  EUibo- 
rate  works  have  been  "written  on  tliis  siil)jcet,  in  which  the  wliole 
argument  has  been  based  on  tlie  supposition  that  tlie  oarUest  of 
speaking  men  were  inferior  to  their  successors,  not  merel}-  in 
accunmhited  knowledge,  —  which  was  a  matter  of  course,  —  but 
in  mental  power,  whicii  is  a  very  different  affair.  The  lowest 
tribes  ol'  our  time  —  the  Australians,  Hottentots,  Fuegians,  and 
other  savages  —  have  l)een  assumed  to  be  lair  representatives  of 
what  our  earliest  ancestors  must  have  been  when  the}'  were  lirst 
endowed  with  the  facult}-  of  speech.  This  supposition  is  contrary 
botii  to  reason  and  to  the  known  facts.  Jt  confuses  two  processes, 
which  are  totally  unlike  in  their  working  and  in  their  results.  The 
changes  caused  by  climate  and  the  other  external  influences  which 
are  commonly  known  as  the  "  environment  "  arc  gradual.  The 
changes  which  arise  from  hcterogenesis  are  sudden,  and  are  at  once 
comi)lete.  In  the  cases  of  polydactylism,  we  do  not  lind  that  a 
mere  germ  or  stump  of  a  finger  first  api)ears,  and  graduall}'  becomes 
longer  and  stronger  in  succeeding  generations.  The  perfect  finger 
ai)i)ears  at  once.  So  in  the  lower  animals :  the  Ancon  or  otter 
breed  is  known  to  have  sprung  from  a  single  shee[),  born  with  ab- 
normally short  legs,  which  became  no  shorter  in  its  descendants. 
The  hornless  cattle  of  Paraguay  are  known  to  be  all  descended  from 
a  single  animal,  which  was  born  without  horns.  There  is  no  rea- 
son for  sui)posing  that  the  earlie.'':.t  speaking  men  may  not  have 
been  endor,.'d  with  the  higliest  intellectual  faculties  of  the  human 
race.  There  is  ever}'  reason  to  believe  that  they  were  so  endowed. 
The  race  of  Cro-Magnon,  the  earliest  known  race  of  social  men, 
though  barbarians,  were,  in  point  of  cerebral  development  and  of 
artistic  powers,  not  only  superior  to  any  barbarians  of  the  present 
da}',  but  certainly  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  any  civilized  race  that 
has  ever  existed.  The  otlier  earliest  communities  known  to  us, 
those  of  Egypt  and  of  Southwestern  Asia,  have  surpassed  in  their 
architectui'c  and  their  inventions  all  succeeding  races.  Their  tem- 
ples and  other  structures  are  the  desi)air  of  our  arcliitects.  All  the 
first  elements  of  knowledge  and  of  progress  have  come  from  them. 
The}'  invented  pottery  and  glass,  the  plough  and  the  loom.  They 
invented  the  alphabet,  and  with  it  a  varied  and  voluminous  litera- 
ture. They  invented  astronomy,  geometry,  and  history.  They 
smelted  copper  and  iron.      They  tamed  almost  all  the  most  useful 


44  SECTiox  n. 

animals.  The}'  first  cultivated  almost  all  the  most  valuable  oscu- 
Icuts.  They  and  their  earliest  oll'shoots  devised  all  the  forms  of 
settled  government,  —  monarch}'  in  Assyria  and  Kg^'pt,  theocracy 
in  India,  aristocracy  in  l^enicia,  and  democracy  in  Arabia.  They 
invented  the  great  Egyptian,  Assyrian,  and  Aryan  religions,  and 
endowed  their  gods  witli  the  qualities  of  knowledge,  power,  and  jus- 
tice, which  they  most  admired  in  their  rulers.  In  Egyi)t  they  in- 
stituted the  judgment  after  death,  and  in  Assyria  they  established 
the  Sabbath.  Their  period  was  that  which  has  been  well  styled  by 
Mr.  Gladstone  the  "youth  of  the  world," — Juvoitus  niinidi, — 
when  the  human  race,  on  its  thinly  i)eopled  planet,  felt  all  its  ener- 
gies called  forth  to  meet  the  wants  and  solve  the  problems  of  its 
new  existence. 

This  conclusion  as  to  the  high  intellectual  grade  of  the  earliest 
speaking  man  is  very  important  in  its  bearing  on  our  views  respect- 
ing the  so-called  inferior  races.  It  is  clear  that  they  represent,  not 
this  primitive  man,  but  simply  a  degeneration  caused  by  unfavorable 
inlluences.  If  this  degeneration  has  taken  place,  as  there  seems 
every  reason  for  believing,  within  a  very  brief  period,  —  five  or  six 
thousand  years  at  furthest,  and  most  of  it  prol)ably  within  a  few 
centuries  after  their  separation  from  the  original  stock,  —  there 
seems  good  reason  for  believing  that  an  miprovement  in  their  sur- 
roundings will  be  followed  b}-  a  gradual  elevation,  and  a  return  to 
the  high  primitive  t3pc. 

The  question  of  the  I'cgion  in  which  speaking  man  first  appeared 
is  one  on  which  there  is  room  for  a  wide  difference  of  opinion.  It 
is  a  question  about  which  no  one  will  venture  to  dogmatize.  The 
natural  supposition,  of  course,  would  be  that  this  first  appearance 
took  place  somewhere  near  the  centres  of  the  earliest  civilization. 
These  centres  were  in  Egypt  and  Assyria.  Between  those  coun- 
tries lies  Arabia,  in  which,  amidst  the  sand}'  desert  that  protects 
the  land  from  invasion,  there  are  many  oases,  large  and  small, 
blessed  Avith  a  most  genial  climate  and  a  fruitful  soil.  In  these 
oases,  w  hich  have  never  known  the  swa}'  of  a  foreign  conqueror, 
the  native  traditions  go  back  to  a  dim  antiquity,  in  which  no  evi- 
dence of  early  barbarism  is  discerned.  From  that  primitive  centre, 
if  such  it  was,  the  increasing  population  would  speedily  overflow 
into  the  plains  of  IMesopotamia  and  the  fertile  vallc}'  of  the  Nile ; 
and  there,  or  in  their  near  vicinity,  nearly  all  the  animals  which 
were  first  tamed,  and  nearly  all  the  plants  which  were  first  culti- 


ADDIIKSS   BY    UOUATIO    HALE.  45 

vfitcd,  would  be  found.  Wc  need  not  be  surprised,  therefore,  to 
find  tliat  tbo  great  majorit}'  of  investigators  liavo  looked  to  South- 
western Asia  for  the  primitive  seat  of  tlic  human  race.  The  most 
distinct  tradition  that  has  come  down  to  us  of  the  earliest  belief  re- 
specting the  creation  of  man  —  the  tradition  wliich  is  preserved  in 
the  Hebrew  narrative  —  places  it  in  an  oasis  on  the  Arabian  bor- 
der, and  dates  it  apparently  at  about  the  time  when,  as  all  the  evi- 
dence seems  to  show,  man  endowed  with  speech  first  api)eared. 

One  otlier  question,  not  certainly  of  the  first  importance,  but 
still  of  curious  and  genuine  interest,  remains  to  be  considered.  If 
the  first  language  spoken  by  man  was  invented  less  than  ten  thou- 
sand years  ago,  it  may  be  deemed  next  to  a  certainty  that  this  lan- 
guage has  survived  to  our  time,  —  not,  of  course,  in  its  exact  original 
form,  but  in  some  derived  idiom.  It  raay  be  taken  for  granted  tiiat 
tlie  population  speaking  this  language  would  be  widely-  difl'used,  and 
would  have  man}'  descendants,  now  speaking  affiliated  languages  of 
the  original  stock.  Tliere  are  three  families  of  languages  clustered 
about  the  supposed  centre  of  this  priscan  population,  the  Hamito- 
Semitic,  the  Arj'an,  and  the  Ural-Altaic.  The  Hamito-Semitic 
stock  has  for  its  earliest  representatives  the  Arabic,  the  Assyrian, 
the  Hebrew,  and  the  Egyptian.  The  Aryan  family'  numbers  among 
its  most  ancient  members  the  Sanscrit,  the  Zend,  and  the  Greek. 
The  Ural-Altaic  stock,  to  which  the  Turkisli,  the  Finnish,  and  the 
Hungarian  languages  belong,  finds  its  chief,  but  sufficient,  claim  to 
high  anticjuity  in  the  Accadian,  whose  discovery-  and  decipherment, 
from  the  hieroglyi)hics  of  the  Assyrian  inscriptions,  have  furnished 
one  of  the  most  notable  triumphs  of  modern  scholarship.  Each  of 
these  three  great  families  of  speech  is  very  widely  diffused,  and  each 
of  them  n)iglit  advance  strong  claims  to  this  curious  genealogical 
distinction  of  being  the  direct  representative  of  the  earliest  tongue. 
The  question  is  one  whoso  determination  by  strictl}'  scientific 
methods  does  not  seem  by  any  means  beyond  reasonable  hojie.  If 
science  can  weigh  the  planets,  can  define  the  chemical  components 
of  the  fixed  stars,  and  describe  the  shape  of  continents  that  ex- 
isted millions  of  years  ago,  it  may  surel}'  bo  expected  to  find  evi- 
dence for  determining  the  particular  linguistic  stock  to  which  the 
earliest  spoken  language  belonged.  Such  evidence  as  we  have  at 
present  certainly  seems  to  favor  the  Hamito-Semitic  famil}'.  This 
family  possesses  the  most  ancient  literature,  and,  if  the  difference 
between  the  Ilamitic  and  Semitic  gro'ips  is  considered,  seems  to 


46  SECTION    11. 

have  varied,  in  the  long  lapse  of  ages,  most  widcl}'.  Lopsius  and 
V.  Miillor  have  traced  its  inlkicnce  far  into  tlie  interior  of  Africa; 
and  Professor  Gerland,  going  fnrtlier  still,  nnites  the  whole  jxipn- 
lation  of  that  vast  peninsnla  witli  the  Semitic  group  in  one  great 
Arabic-African  race.  There  is  a  certain  evidence  —  not  perhaps 
decisive,  but  wortliy  of  consideration  —  which  seems  to  connect 
the  Cro-Magnon  race  M'ith  tlie  llamitic  branch  of  this  family.  The 
extinct  population  of  tlie  Canary  Islands,  the  (Jnanches,  are  known 
to  have  belonged  to  this  llamitic  branch,  and  their  crania,  as  Prof, 
de  Qnatrefages  shows,  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  those  of  the 
men  of  the  Cro-iNIagnon  era.  This  cautious  investigator  does  not 
hesitate  to  pronounce  the  Guanehcs  to  be  evidently  the  descendants 
of  that  ancient  race.  lie  declares  that  "  the  resemblance  of  cranial 
forms  sometimes  amounts  to  identity,"  and  he  adds  the  confirma- 
tory fact,  that  a  late  observer,  M.  "N'erneau,  has  found  among  the 
present  islanders  —  who  are  in  part  descended  from  the  (luanches 
—  implements  precisely  like  those  which  were  used  in  France  by 
the  Cro-^Iagnon  liunters. 

Tlie  conclusions  to  which  this  inquiry,  guided  bj-  the  most  recent 
discoveries  of  science,  has  directed  us,  may  be  briefly  summed  up. 
We  find  that  llie  ideas  of  the  anti(]iiity  of  man  wliicli  have  pre- 
vailed of  late  3-cars,  and  more  especiallj'  since  Lyell  published  his 
notable  work  on  the  subject,  must  be  considerabh'  modified.  iS'o 
doubt,  if  we  are  willing  to  give  the  name  of  man  to  a  half-brutish 
being,  incapable  of  speech,  wliose  only  human  accomplishments  M'ere 
those  of  using  fire  and  of  making  a  single  clumsy  stone  implement, 
we  must  allow  to  this  lieing  an  existence  of  vast  and  as  j-et  un- 
defined duration,  shared  with  the  mammoth,  the  woolly-  rhinoceros, 
and  other  extinct  animals.  But  if,  with  many  writers,  we  term  the 
beings  of  this  race  the  [precursors  of  man,  and  restrict  the  name  of 
men  to  the  members  of  the  speaking  race  that  followed  them,  then 
the  fli'st  appearance  of  man,  properly  so  styled,  must  be  dated  at 
about  the  time  to  which  it  was  ascribed  before  the  discoveries  of 
Boucher  de  Perthes  had  startled  the  civilized  world,  —  that  is,  some- 
where between  six  thousand  and  ten  thousand  years  ago.  And  this 
man  who  thus  appeared  was  not  a  being  of  feeble  powers,  a  dull- 
witted  savage,  on  the  mental  level  of  the  degenerate  Australian  or 
Hottentot  of  our  daj-.  He  possessed  and  manifested,  from  the 
first,  intellectual  faculties  of  the  highest  order,  such  as  none  of  his 
descendants  have  surpassed.     His  speech,  we  maj'  be  sure,  was 


ADDKKSS    BY    HOKATIO    HALE.  47 

not  !i  im>rc  mumble  of  disjointod  souiuls,  framed  of  interjections 
tmd  of  imitatiuus  of  the  cries  of  beasts  and  birds.  It  was,  like 
every  language  now  spoken  anywliere  on  earth  bj-  anj*  tribe,  how- 
ever rude  or  savage,  a  full,  expressive,  well-organized  speech, 
cou'plete  in  all  its  parts.  The  first  men  spoke,  because  they  pos- 
sessed, along  with  the  vocal  organs,  the  cerebral  faculty  of  speech. 
As  Professor  jNIax  Miiller  has  well  said,  "that  faculty  was  an 
instinct  of  the  mind,  as  irresistible  as  any  other  instinct."  Jt  was 
as  inipossii)le  for  the  first  child  endowed  with  this  facult}'  not  to 
speak,  in  the  presence  of  a  com[)anion  similarly  endowed,  as  it 
would  be  for  a  nightingale  or  a  thrush  not  to  carol  to  its  mate. 
The  same  faculty  creates  the  same  necessity  in  our  days ;  and  its 
exercise  b}'  young  children,  when  accidentally  isolated  from  tlie 
teachings  and  iuHuence  of  grown  companions,  will  readily  account 
for  the  existence  of  all  the  diversities  of  speech  on  our  glube. 

If  the  views  now  i)resented  shall  be  confirmed  Ity  further  in- 
vestigations, the}-  will  serve  to  clear  up  uncertainties  which  have 
pcri)lexed  the  minds  of  students  of  linguistic  science  and  of  arclwe- 
ology,  and  have  seriously'  impeded  the  progress  of  all  the  anthro- 
pological sciences.  Tiie  views,  with  the  evidence  which  seems  to 
sustain  tliem,  arc  therefore  resix'ctfully  submitted  to  the  candid 
consideration  of  the  meml)ers  of  our  Section,  and  through  them  to 
the  students  of  those  sciences  in  other  countries,  in  the  hope  of 
inducing  further  incjuiry  which  may  lead  to  decisive  and  satisfac- 
tory conclusions  on  these  important  questions. 


